What Once Was Lost
by BrutalLesbionesty
Summary: Obito manages to kill his old friend/hated enemy. But instead of satisfaction, he's haunted by a mountain of regrets and a literal ghost of his dead teammate that causes him to realize just how wrong he may have been. In a last ditch attempt to fix things, he goes back to where it all began. Can the future be saved by the man who almost destroyed it? Obito's willing to hope so.
1. Darkest Before The Dawn

**AN:** What happens when a depressed lesbian writes a fix-it fic for her favorite pairing? Obviously this. Please review so I know whether to continue or not, lots of love to everyone who does and follows/favorites.

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 **Prologue: Darkest Before the Dawn**

Warm and thick, the blood spills over his fingers and down his arm with the most satisfying dripping noise as it trickles to the ground beneath them. The metallic scent in the air is sweeter than any perfume Obito has ever encountered and his choked gasps a sweet melody. Kakashi's eye and his own gifted one stare back at him. Not wide or strained with pain or fear, but drooping and furrowed with what looked liked...grief. Sadness and regret.

They stand there on their battle ground, the place of their reunion, Kakashi lodged on Obito's arm from a lucky shot he'd just barely managed to land with his Kamui. His arm solidified in his former teammates chest and gripping his still beating heart. He squeezes tighter when the other man attempts to move an arm. He gasps in pain, but doesn't stop. Obito lets him continue what he's doing, he's already won, why not drag this out.

Surprisingly there's no handseal or attempt to lodge the arm away, no curses or pleas. Just a pale hand reaching up to pull down Kakashi's mask. What is the point of this?

As a child he'd tried many times to see his teammates face. It seems incredibly unremarkable now all these years later that he finally is. A handsome face definitely, with a small mole on the jaw, but nothing worth hiding. He scrunches his face in confusion preparing to just end it with a tight grip, when he saw a smile fall across the other man's pale, twitching face.

There's a shift on his arm, and he realizes with utter bewilderment that Kakashi is moving further down on his arm. Impaling himself further and moving closer. Does he intend for them to die together? Obito glares squeezing tighter and growls. The Jounin stops for a moment to cough up a copious amount of blood that lands on Obito's face. A satisfying squelch is heard as he flinches on the arm inside of him.

He laughs. Kakashi fucking laughs. Then he looks up at Obito with that smile still in place, and now tears falling from the one eye that is actually his. He leans forward close enough to whisper.

"I'm sorry..." And then, he kisses him.

Obito crushes his heart and stands frozen as the body slides backwards off his arm. It lands with a heavy thud on the ground and lies motionless. Lifeless.

Hatake Kakashi of the sharingan is dead. He's dead and it's all because of Obito. He reaches up to place a hand against his remaining original eye and feels blood dripping down. He'd exhausted his mangekyo more than he's ever had to in his life over the course of this fight. He can practically hear the sweet whispers of a terrible idea. A last vengeance against the man he hated more than anything.

Vaguely he hears footsteps and anguished screams. He recognizes Naruto's voice among them. He has to hurry if he's going to do this. He picks up the corpse and cradles it to his chest in a strangely intimate hold. Despite his exhaustion, he manages one more use of his Kamui to return him to his and Madara's area of operations. Or one of them at least. He appears in the damp cavern right in the middle of what is supposed to be a room of sorts. There's a cot off to the side, and several piles of weapons and scrolls scattered across the ground in the walled off section of cave. It smells of minerals and mold, but that's practically comforting to Obito by now. He's used to such places.

He sets his old friend's corpse onto his cot and takes a moment to stare down at Kakashi's body. The grand satisfaction he always imagined in this moment is absent. Instead Obito feels...hollow. Ironic considering which one of them has a gaping hole in their chest. Kakashi isn't broken and battered like he imagined either.

Everytime he thought of how he would take his revenge, it usually involved tormenting and breaking his old teammate. Snapping bones and ripping flesh until he begged for death. Obito being the kind and merciful man he was, would grant his wish leaving behind a barely recognizable pile of bloodied limbs. Instead, there's a fully in tact body he's brought to his room looking almost peaceful. He's paler than normal, but aside from the fatal wound barely has any signs of their battle remaining. He could very well be sleeping if Obito pulled his eyes down and covered up the hole.

His hand reaches out without him really noticing at first. Fingertips brushing over snow colored eyelashes as he pushes the lid on Kakashi's actual eye down. He can't figure out why he feels the need to caress it all the way down his cheek after. All the way to the lips that Kakashi had chosen to press against his as his final act. He had set out to destroy everything the other man held dear, and yet the man's dying moment had been spent kissing him. Why?

He shakes his head and pulls his hand back before he can think further on such ridiculous notions. He stares down into his own eye on the man's face. The permanent sharingan he'd given him all those years ago. His hand reaches out again, this time towards the dull red eye left open.

They say it's impolite to take back a gift, but Obito doesn't see the problem.

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It's as he thought. This sharingan sees perfectly with very little strain against it. Obito barely has to spend anytime at all getting used to it, and he's still able to fully utilize Kamui despite Kakashi being unable to during his time with it. It's a twisted homecoming in a way, but somehow it still feels a bit foreign. Different from the sharingan he'd been using for over a decade and a half. He quickly gets over the strange warmth he feels when he sees the borrowed eye in his reflection the first few times.

He takes joy in killing Kakashi's old comrades with this eye. It's almost like the ninja is there, watching Obito take down the alliance his precious student worked so hard to bring together. For weeks he continues to fight without any issues. Then, Uzumaki Naruto dies, and everything begins to fall apart.

They hadn't been able to extract the kyuubi or take the body, so it's a partial victory at best. Obito storms back to his hideout frustrated and not in any mood to speak with Madara. He closes himself in and grabs a random instrument throwing it at the wall. Both end up with massive cracks in them.

That's when he first hears it…

"Maa~ what's the matter Uchiha, don't feel like celebrating your victory?"

He stands deathly still for a moment before he begins to frantically look around the room. It can't be. But it is, Kakashi is sitting on the cot, leaning against the wall and looking up at Obito with a lazy expression. His mask is off, and an empty socket stares back where his old eye had once been. The hole in his chest is still there, but no longer bleeding.

He's clearly not an edo tensai, and Obito knows he'd disposed of the body. So it's most likely this Kakashi is just a figment of his imagination. He has to be.

"Nothing to say, that's quite rude Obito," "Kakashi" says his stare becoming much more hardened with each word. "Especially to a man whose blood is on your hands. You could at least give me this courtesy."

Obito picks up another weapon and throws it at him this time. Just as he thought it passes right through the illusion. Kakashi looks back unimpressed and waiting for a response. Obito growls at him.

"I don't owe you a damn thing!" He snaps. "You're not even here, I killed you…"

"Just like Naruto right?" There's judgement and anger in his voice, and he can see him shake.

"He died pathetically, begging for his life," Obito tries. Even as a ghost of his mind he still wants to hurt him so much. See that remaining eye twist in horror and grief.

He gets a scoff instead. "He almost killed you, and he died with a smile." The ghost smirks at him after calling his bluff. "Just like me eh?"

"You saw?" Obito asks. He moves himself to the opposite side of the room, crossing his arms and watches the other.

Kakashi nods. "I've seen everything. You took my eye, remember?"

"MY eye," Obito corrects.

Kakashi pauses, considering something, before shaking his head. "I suppose so." He sighs and his posture slumps. "You really killed him...I wonder what sensei thinks."

"I don't care," Obito cuts him off. The last thing he wants is to reminisce with a ghost.

"Yes you do," Kakashi says. He sounds more tired than anything. "I wouldn't be here if you didn't…" Obito can't think of an adequate response and just lets him continue to ramble on. "I don't know if I'm really here to be honest. I figure I'm either some sort of delusion, or a trace of my conscience left behind from the chakra in that eye. Either way, you brought me out for a reason, so what is it Obito? Why am I here?"

There's the golden question. No matter what he is, it's obvious Obito's own mind is the reason he's manifested. For the life of him, he can't figure out why. To see how he reacts to what Obito's done? That doesn't feel right, and despite his previous musings, gloating doesn't appeal as much as he thought. He refuses to acknowledge the tingle on his chapped lips, and the memory of a kiss that goes with it.

He glares at the ghost and shrugs his shoulders. "As if I know…"

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Kakashi appears the second time about a week later after Obito stumbles in, bloody and beaten down. He's coughing uncontrollably and stumbling towards his cot. He collapses and curls up. Madara had deemed him healthy enough to survive, and therefore wasted no time in considering actually easing his pain. Bastard.

He lays limp on the cot staring at the center of the rocky ground. He sees a pair of pale feet covered in navy blue shinobi sandles. His eyes wander up over the figure until they rest on a recognizable face. Kakashi's hands are tucked into his pockets, and eyes bright with amusement.

"Sasuke's temper has always had interesting results," He states bluntly.

Obito rolls his eyes. "Like me getting my ass kicked into next week?" There's no use in preserving his pride. His entire body aches, and it's already been established Kakashi sees everything. "He'll make a mistake eventually, he's compromised."

"He's determined," Kakashi fires back. "Especially against you."

Him? Obito ponders what he means by that, before all the pieces fall into place. Obito had been the one to bring Madara's presence back into the world. He'd killed the boy's entire family side by side almost with his brother, and lured said brother into the akatsuki. Now, he's taken yet another thing away from Sasuke. Naruto. Obito realizes with a discomforting anxiety that Sasuke is the physical embodiment of his sins. All of his crimes shaped together into a hurt child, angry and bitter at the world for all that he's lost. He pities him.

He stares blankly at his old friend and curls into himself further on the cot. Then, Kakashi is just there. Kneeling down next him, ethereal hands phasing through him as he tries to run them through his hair. "You need to rest, you're hurt."

"Why do you care?" Obito chokes out, caught off guard by how gentle he's being. Doesn't he remember why Sasuke had hurt him so badly? Doesn't he remember Obito killed him?!

"...Just go to sleep crybaby."

He is crying he realizes. It's been so long.

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He sees him on and off over the next few months. Sometimes they talk, or he does most of the talking and Obito responds in whatever hostile way he can think of on the spot. Other times the spectre of his dead friend just sits there, watching over him after a difficult battle. It becomes a routine of sorts, and he's used to seeing the copy nin almost every day he isn't out fighting.

Then, three weeks go by with no sign of the other. He waits for any sign of Kakashi. That lazy voice or bored stare. Nothing. He starts to wonder if it's over. If whatever he created the delusion for is done with. That's when the dreams start.

 _A lush, green Konoha that isn't littered with injured bodies being carted in surrounds him. A warm, soft breeze surrounds him and the sun shines down. Such a beautiful day. A glance down reveals pale hands he knows aren't actually his. A look ahead confirms the theory he's starting to form._

 _He sees himself. His younger self to be more specific. The young Obito is kicking away at a target log on the training ground. Striking around at it, and tiring himself down. He pants, hunched down in a battle position before bringing his leg forward to strike one last time. The log cracks and he sees himself grin. He looks so happy, and proud. All for breaking a stupid log with his foot._

 _"You call that impressive?" The voice comes from him, but he wasn't the one to actually say it. "Obito" turns to snap at him, fist raise and gaze burning._

 _"Whatever Bakashi!" He shouts. "Let's see you do it without any chakra or anything. Bet you cant!"_

 _'He's so determined. All he ever does is fall short...how does he just keep going?'_

 _Like the words that had come out of his mouth, the thought had felt like his, but he knows it isn't. This is Kakashi's memory. He can't recall this particular incident, and is honestly surprised it was obviously important to Kakashi somehow._

 _"Tch. Step aside."_

 _He goes over and the next few hours become a competition to see who can destroy the most logs, trees, and any other training prop they can get their hands on. By the time the sun sets and temperature is starting to cool down, both are panting and surrounded by splintered chips of wood. His younger self turns away and stomps off._

 _"It was a draw!" He pouts. Then, gives Kakashi a bright grin and a thumbs up. "I'll beat you next time though!"_

 _His heart skips a beat, and it's not from the exhaustion. What the?_

 _'How can he be so happy all the time? It's impressive.'_

 _He's starting to feel uncomfortable hearing these thoughts and experiencing the warmth in his chest that obviously belongs to Kakashi. His eyes are drawn to the setting sun shimmering off of thick black spikes and highlighting flushed peach skin…if only he could see his eyes in this light without those stupid goggles in the way._

 _What?_

He wakes up gasping and more confused than he's ever been in his life.

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The next day, he fights Sasuke again and it's a complete disaster. The younger Uchiha is almost too fast for him to keep up with. Their blows near equal in strength and the other fueled by a very familiar hate mixed with grief. The fact that he obviously is the new vessel for the Kyuubi only adds to his frustrations.

He weaves the beast's chakra around him with little effort, powering his attacks and lashing out at Obito with almost staggering power. The sealing had to be agreeable if he and the bijuu are working this well together, perhaps banding together to avenge the young man they both lost.

Sasuke's blade comes crashing down, Obito barely blocking it with a kunai. Their sharingan and rinnegans meet each other from behind their weapons and powerful chakra flaring out from both of them. No one dares come in between them, and there seems to be a clearing between them and the rest of the battle going on almost.

"You...it's all your fault!" Sasuke shouts red chakra flaring out. Black energy mixes as the curse mark begins to activate. Can he use it and the kyuubi at once? Shit.

"You killed them, you killed him!" It isn't hard to guess who "him" is.

There's no way for him to win this fight, but maybe to gain something from it. That look in the teenager's eyes in achingly familiar. Just as much as the whirling emotions he sees in them. He knows exactly how he feels, and how to use that.

"You can get him back," Obito offers. "You can have all of them back. Your mother, your father, Itachi…" Sasuke's blade is gaining ground and eerily close to his face. "Naruto."

Sasuke goes still, pressure easing up and Obito reluctantly pulls his kunai away and leaps back. Gaining that extra distance just in case. He does his best to soften his face and extends a hand out.

"You can create a new world with them, one where you'll never lose him. You'll be together forever, with no betrayals or broken bonds between you. Just you and him in a perfect world with each other."

The pure unfiltered rage on Sasuke's face let's him know he's made a mistake. "How. DARE. YOU!" The transformation he sees take place can only be called grotesque. Sasuke's cursed form mixing together with the red of the kyuubi's chakra and corrupting it further.

"Do you think I would insult his memory, defile him like that?" He growls and it sounds nothing like a human. "I'm not you…"

Obito ends up fleeing with Kamui and allows Sasuke the victory that day. Madara is furious, but Obito can't bring himself to care. He would have died in that fight if he'd stayed, died with a heavy heart full of treacherous thoughts.

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He finally sees Kakashi again a few days later. It's not in the headquarters this time. It's in what he's sure is a dream. They're on a grassy hill on a cool night with a full moon shining brightly above them. Kakashi sits off to the side, looking up at the stars and hardly acknowledging him. Obito hesitates to turn and face him.

He opens his mouth to speak but nothing comes out. So he stares and watches white, no silver...white is too dull like his own has become as he gives into the monster Madara is turning him into, hair swaying in the breeze.

"You're still going to win." Kakashi breaks the silence.

"Oh?" Obito says, and damn it he hasn't felt this awkward since he was a clumsy preteen. His heart aches as that thought process brings up the things that have been troubling him the past few days.

Making his offer to Sasuke had been eye opening. Trying to lure him to his side the same way Madara had with him years ago. Except Sasuke had refused so easy. Never even considering reaching out to gain back everything he lost.

"I'm not you…"

Obito cringes at the memory. The way he'd said it, as if Obito were the most vile piece of trash to ever exist. He guesses he probably is to Sasuke actually. He doesn't understand why that effects him like it does.

"Your army is turning the tides," Kakashi states still looking up. "The shinobi alliance is wearing down, this victory will fuel them for awhile but, it won't last. You win old friend."

The sadness in his voice is what fuels Obito to finally snap out of it. "No I don't!" He shouts and streams of warm liquid drip down his cheeks. Crying again. "Madara wins. Kaguya wins! What the hell have I won?!" It's all coming together in a single twisted picture.

He's such an idiot. A weak willed fool who thought death and decay could bring peace. His entire plan ends with him living the rest of his life in an illusion molded by himself and a madman who is the pawn of a long forgotten "deity". What would Rin think if she saw him now?

Again Sasuke's word haunt him. How he spoke of insulting Naruto's memory and defiling it...was that what he'd been doing this whole time. There's a hand on his shoulder, one that doesn't just pass through and he actually feels. It's the closest he's come to actual non violent human touch since Madara found him.

And it's in a dream.

"Crybaby," he hears Kakashi chuckle. He's looking at him now, giving a small fond smile. "If you don't like the way things are going...change it. Make a difference."

"I can't," Obito says his voice cracking. He feels so much like that boy stuck in the other man's shadow right now.

"You can," Kakashi says tucking a strand of hair behind his ear. The hand keeps moving to stroke over his cheek. "You changed me, and for better or worse you've nearly changed the world...you can do some fairly impressive things when you set your mind to it."

Obito let's out a bitter laugh. "You only think that way because you were in love with me." There wasn't much room to misinterpret the memory he'd seen. He had seen himself through Kakashi's eyes back then, and it had felt an awful lot like how he remembered viewing Rin.

For all the crap they'd given each other, in the end Kakashi was the one to hold onto his memory tighter than anyone. He'd taken his morales and even bad habits to heart and made them his own. He'd visited him in his own weird way at that stone after everyone else had long forgotten him. All of that for him, and Obito had destroyed everything he cared about in return.

Yet, here he was comforting him and trying to make him believe he could change things.

"You know,"Kakashi says, "I don't see how you moping in your sleep is helping anything here…" No denial or confirmation of the heavy statement Obito had just dropped. Fine then.

"Bakashi," he muters. "You stop appearing and then only come back in a dream to what? Give me a pep talk?" Kakashi laughs and Obito shakes his head. "Whatever, I guess I'll try. Not like I have anything to lose."

"That's the spirit," Kakashi says and starts to pull his hand away. Obito grabs it and pulls it back to his face.

Kakashi stares at him with his eye wide, and let's out a yelp as Obito yanks him forward. The kiss that follows is about as chaste as it gets, just a bare touch of lips and Obito pulls back away after only a few seconds. He presses his forehead against Kakashi's and exhales slowly.

"Start visiting me again? Please…" He asks barely above a whisper.

"It's not real Obito, just a remnant of me from the sharigan," Kakashi sighs, but doesn't move away.

"I know," says Obito. "But I need you to keep me going. I need something to fight for Kakashi."

He shakes his head and moves in closer. "Always fighting for the sake of ghosts. That's a lonely life Obito."

He leans forward for another kiss, and Obito wakes up. He's alone on his cot, and he actally feels like it this time. The loneliness and dread he's suppressed for years returning to him. He lays there limp and wallowing in his despair for a few seconds. He cherishes those moment, they're the last ones he'll allow himself to wallow in self pity for awhile. He has a mission to accomplish and petty self loathing can't get in the way.

He shoves himself up and stretches his arms over his head. The pop in his shoulder blades is good in a strange and aching way. Scratching his head he looks around his room. It's disappointing that there's no sign of silver hair flashing in his vision.

"Maa~ what are you sitting around for?" His mood brightens up when his head shifts to the direction of the voice. He's sitting beside him on the cot, casually leaning back. Kakashi winks at him and says, "You've got work to do."

Obito reaches his hand over to touch his, as expected it moves through it no feel of skin or warmth like the dream, and smiles. "Well you see, I was going to...but I had to stop and talk to this lazy asshole in a dream."

"I think that might be your worst excuse yet."


	2. The Beginning of The End

**AN:** Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed, favorited or followed this fic, like I'm so surprised it did so well. I hope you all continue to enjoy it!

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 **Chapter 1: The Beginning of The End**

Betrayal is a feeling Madara has come to know well over his many years. Has become defined by it one might say. As Konohagakure's first nukenin he hardly has any room to judge anyone who succumbs to the same temptation he did. That doesn't mean he has to show them mercy however. No, if anything, he understands the necessity of cutting down such individuals before they can wreck havoc.

Sitting in his twisted throne of rock and rubble in the deep caverns he's taken to roam when not decimating his enemies, he ponders just what to do with his own traitor. Though he technically has no proof of his suspicions, he is almost certain Obito is plotting something. The signs are subtle, but there all the same.

Where he once stood at Madara's side he becomes more distant with each day and lacks that formerly powerful belief in his eyes when Madara speaks of the world they intend to create. There are at least three occasions he can account for where the other had snuck off into the night when he though the elder Uchiha wasn't looking. He suspects its more, but he's trained his apprentice well and there's a reason why he's never been able to locate exactly where he's going during those nights.

The young man in question drags himself before Madara at that moment. Sliding his feet on the ground as he trudges into the entrance of the cave and kneels before his mentor.

Madara stares down at the younger man, expression blank and absent of any signs of his previous thoughts. "The remaining camps in the Land of Fire have been dealt with?"

Obito gives a nod. "Yes, survivors did manage to evacuate, but all of the shinobi who stayed behind to aid were cut down."

"And Uchiha Sasuke?" Madara asks.

"...He was not in any of the camps,"'Obito says. "But Haruno Sakura was, she was one of the many who stayed behind."

A please smile crosses his face, "Ah excellent, we have at least dealt with one of their major generals then. You are dismissed Obito."

He nods in response silently rising and making his way out of the cavern. No words of victory and smug declarations of their plan coming to fruition. It had been this way for awhile, but now it only grew more apparent.

"You should be excited," Obito stops in his tracks but doesn't turn his back as Madara speaks to him. His voice darkens in a warning. "Our victory is inevitable…"

He stays quiet for a few seconds before simply saying, "Yes, it truly is." Then walks out leaving Madara with a list of questions.

The most important of which being what to do with Obito. Whatever that foolish boy is planning is certainly pointless. There's not way for him to turn things around this late into the battle. Perhaps in the earlier days…

But now, the shinobi alliance is crumbling before them and they grow closer with each day to finding Sasuke and by default the kyuubi. Plus, even if he is foolish enough to think he can, surely he realizes that Sasuke will allow the literal end of the world before he ever stands near Obito outside of the context of taking his head. The death of Uzumaki Naruto was the final nail in that coffin.

Whatever it is he's planning, it ends here. Madara turns to the cave wall at the bottom of his pedestal. "Zetsu...take care of him."

The creature emerges from the wall, twisted and disgusting as always. "B-But Madara-sama, we need Obito. He-"

"He's a filthy traitor, we need to rip him apart," The black half interrupts his other side voicing Madara's thoughts.

"We will still find use for him after," Madara says with a smirk. Zetsu flees the cavern after Obito on his orders and Madara eagerly awaits his return.

Edo Tensei is quite a marvelous technique after all.

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Obito arrives in the clearing after about twenty minutes of randomly patterned movement meant to shake off any followers. It's a peaceful little spot he found away from their army and its mad leader. Originally he came to the small spring to enjoy the harmony of the drizzling waterfall and the various fresh smells of the plant life around. An escape from his own horrific plans.

Now it is the site of his most ambitious plot yet. He sits at the edge of the spring first resting his aching bones. It's no surprise when a set of legs appear next to his dipping their feet into the water.

"Can you even feel that?" Obito asks Kakashi.

The phantom avoids his gaze. "I feel a lot of things…"

"I'm sorry," Obito says taking note of the grief in his voice. There's no mischief or playful banter in his remaining eye today. "I wasn't the one who-"

"I know," he cuts him off. "She's stil-" she's still dead though he doesn't say. Another person he's failed.

Obito reaches out and touches the specter, not actually feeling anything as his fingers pass right through his cheek as he strokes it.

"I'll fix it," he tells him. "I promise, it's almost ready. I just need to test it out before I try it for real."

Whatever Kakashi is about it say is lost in exchange for a scream of his name and motion to look behind himself. He barely has enough time to avoid the barrage of mokuton coming his way.

It's just the bare side of one of the strips of wood shaped into pointed pikes that manages to mar the formerly unscarred half of his face. Coming from the ground beneath him it cuts in a slight diagonal line up his face and right across his rinnegan eye. He manages to leap several meters away panting and looking around.

He applauded Kakashi for having been able to fight like this back then immediately. His vision is cut in half, and one of his biggest trump cards is gone. Half from the ground ahead he sees Zetsu, his two halves fused and the white half with a pained expression.

"Obito, why?" It asks him.

They know, which must mean Madara does as well by default. There's a brief moment of regret at seeing the creature who had been one of his only real friends these past few years look so pained at his betrayal. But he has little time to let it distract him as he notices them rise and black Zetsu begin to pull itself away from its body mate.

Obito's heart nearly stops. If he's detaching then he could be planning to...no. He's worked too hard to end up as that parasites host. He has to flee, he can't risk being caught. He also can't use Kamui carelessly though.

What he's planning will be the ultimate strain on his sharingan and if he's not in top form it could end disastrously. But, if Madara is in constant pursuit of him from now on, when will that opportunity be able to arise? Kakashi is screaming his name ordering him to run as black Zetsu creeps towards him at ridiculous speed.

Obito runs. He runs into the trees forming hand signs at a speed impossible for anyone who isn't an Uchiha or a Hyuuga to see. The creature isn't far behind and he can hear it's taunts.

"Run away little Uchiha, I'll catch you soon enough!"

He activates mangekyo and pours his chakra into his eye, more than ever in his life. Kakashi is right beside him remaining eye wide as it watches him work. He's worried, and it touches Obito's heart as he continues to gather chakra and begins to activate Kamui. He has to time this just right or it's all for nothing. Damn it, he should have had more time, tested it. As of this moment he's about to attempt the greatest feat in his career as a shinobi and it's entirely based on theory and half hearted practice.

A small smile on his face, turns to Kakashi and lets it form into a grin that takes up about half of his face. He releases his chakra in a single brilliant burst right as he jumps into Kamui's dimension, with Zetsu's hand just centimeters away from grabbing onto him. The speed he surges forward can be described as nothing short of incredible, and he has but a moment to get the specific point in time in his head.

He pictures it clear as day. The rocks on top of him and Rin and Kakashi's tear stained face as they run out of the caves. Their anguished cries as they do so. The agony of the rocks beginning to compress and crush bones. The overwhelming scent of his own blood everywhere around him. All a vivid memory brought to the surface as an anchor, that stops him dead in the middle of his rush through Kamui.

A kaleidoscope of lights flash around him. They swirl and brighten, enveloping him before exploding out around him and slowly fading away. He's left in a cave that's crumbling down around him and smells of blood.

He looks around to make sure, he has to be certain. Wobbling forward through the pains of severe chakra exhaustion he steps around a large pile of stone. He is morbidly delighted by what he finds.

A large piece of rock resting on the cave floor along with several others fallen around it. More join with each second, but all miss the tiny body he sees underneath. Or half of one.

His younger self squirms and desperately tries to pull free. His closed eyelid is flat and sunken in from where Rin gave Kakashi his sharingan already. He's right on time. The boy's survival instincts have just kicked in and due to his lack of vision he hasn't even noticed Obito yet. He creeps closer until he's standing directly over the small figure.

It's unlikely the rocks have been fatally compressed yet with how much he's moving around. For all his talk of his friend seeing the future for him, Obito very firmly remembers how badly he had still wanted to live. The child's sobs are muffled and heart wrenching.

It'll all be over soon.

He wills his body to stand steady and slowly begins to form handseals. He might have just enough for one more jutsu...one more shot to do something. He's considering a fire jutsu, burn it hot enough to incinerate the body instantly and put the boy out of his misery and away from Madara's reach. Then he'll go after Madara while he's still old and weak and with no successor.

Let him move on and never cause the tragedies Obito knows he will. He readies the jutsu and takes in a breath. Just as the familiar gathering of heat in his belly starts to pool, he hears it. A miracle considering the volume of the rocks tumbling all around them.

"P-Please help me," his younger self manages out.

It's enough to make Obito freeze and reevaluate the boy. How did he even know he was there?

His form trembles under the boulder and his dry sobbing grows louder. "I-I don't want to die. I don't know y-you are b-but please, I just want to go home to my village."

Home. Konohagakure. Where Rin and Kakashi are, where Minato and Kushina...where his grandmother is. Obito lowers the handseals and stares down at the boy.

The rocks are still falling and the bulder on top of him is weighing down more and more. There's no time to hesitate. But…

"Help him!" He hears Kakashi's voice. He can't see him anywhere, but he hears it clear as day. It's desperate and almost begging. "He still has hope...it doesn't have to end this way."

Death would be kinder, and predictable. He could die as the hero Kakashi spent most of his life thinking he was.

"What do you want?" Obito asks his younger self.

The other tenses up, a brief flash of hope. He expects another plea for help or some predictable answer like "I want to live." He isn't prepared for him to shakily gasp out.

"I w-want t-to help my friends…"

It's daunting when he realizes that this boy isn't actually him. Physically yes, but as for everything else they may as well be completely different. The him he is now is a twisted and bitter man corrupted by hatred and grief. This is the bright and caring boy from Kakashi's memory.

This is the boy Kakashi loved.

Without another thought he reaches down and touches his shoulder gripping it tight. The child whimpers nervously. Obito shushes him. There's hardly any bare ground around them now. And another boulder is heading down for right on top of them.

"You better be grateful for this you little brat," he says. Despite the exhaustion and strain on both his chakra points and eyes protesting with every fiber of their being, he activates Kamui for what he can just sense is a final time. Blood pours from his remaining eyes and he screams as he pulls the boy out from beneath the rocks in an intangible state and stares out right at the entrance of the cavern. He can barely even see the outside, and he hasn't even dared use Kakashi's version of Kamui since taking this eye…

It's a day made for firsts apparently. He transports them forward, the swirling spirals sucking them in and hurling them just outside of the cave.

He sees only a brief glimmer of a little girl with painfully recognizable hazel eyes and violet face marks a little ways ahead. Her face contorted in confusion, shock, and just a bit of happiness from where she's collapsed on the ground.

"Kakashi!" She shouts as she runs towards them.

It's a good last sight, Obito thinks. Right before everything goes dark.


	3. A Glimmer of Hope

**AN:/** _So I know it's been awhile, but I started a new job along with just life in general. I finally got a grip on where to go with this and actually have a second story planned I'll be starting soon. SO expect actual updates soon. Please enjoy and review so I know whether anyone likes this or not._

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 **Chapter 2: A Glimmer of Hope**

It's a startling contrast, the feeling of having rocks completely piling down on top of you and bearing down on your body, to a complete weightlessness that practically throws you forward. When the rocks were on top of him, the pain had been numbed by adrenaline and constant pressure, now somehow outside of the cave with nothing to bear down pure agony shoots through about half of his body.

"Kakashi!" he hears Rin scream at the same time he yells in pain. Tears he'd been holding back flowed freely and his chest rapidly raises from hyperventilating. He regrettably makes the decision to turn his head to the side to lift up the bloodied side and chokes out another sound as the movement causes a ripple of twitches in his body that awaken every nerve that had still been dulled.

He sees a man collapsed beside him, his chest just barely raising up and down and a deathly pale face half covered in horrific scars staring at him. Or not really staring, as he notices the milky colorless pallor of one eye, and the grey clouded iris in the other that slowly begin to close. It takes him barely a moment to register that this must be the man who saved him.

"Th-thank, y-" he sputters on the remaining words as his chest begins to feel too tight.

"Shh," a soft and gentle voice breaks his single focused concentration. Rin. Her small hands are on his torso and he feels the warm and soothing sensation of healing chakra pouring into him. There's a chill that makes him think his jacket and shirt have either been pulled up or cut open, he's too focused on other things to be able to tell for sure.

As his vital systems begin to mend and pull themselves back together, the sound of steel clashing in the background is almost deafening. Is that Kakashi? Is fighting the enemy alone?

"It's going to be okay," her beautiful voice shakes, but her hands are steady as she moves them around his body to close any open wounds. "We've got you...you're going to…" she sobs and he finds the strength to turn his head enough to look straight up into her teary eyes. Wet trails trace her face markings and her lips quiver.

"I-It's o-okay," he croaks out. The arm that managed to avoid being crushed reaches up and wipes a freshly forming tear from the corner of her eye. "It's okay."

"Obito!" he hears an echo of a different voice shouting his name, and his vision goes out of focus to see the form of his male teammate over Rin's shoulder rushing towards them.

He's slipping. The colors are fading and the noises are growing further and further away. He's just barely holding on when the shock of one brilliant spot of red swirled with silver in his vision appears right over him.

"Please...hold on…" he can't understand the next part fully it's too quiet and distant. "...so sorry….right….longer...please!" Something wet falls on his cheek, and everything goes black.

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The smell of ointment and salves is overwhelming and he nearly chokes on it as he barely begins to regain conscience. The pungent odor practically shocks him awake as he sits up gasping and scrunching his face. Immediately hands roughly grip his biceps and firmly hold him down. There's just a moment where instincts kick in and he's certain he's still there on the battlefield. He's just began to struggle when someone breaks through the haze.

"Obito!" Sensei's voice commanding and stern yells out suddenly. "Calm down, you're safe." One of the hands on him goes from rough to a barely tangible grip that comfortingly rubs up and down his uninjured arm. The hand around the other releases him and he turns to see it belonged to a medic dressed up from head to toe.

The medic mutters something to Minato that Obito doesn't quite register as he takes in his surroundings. He's definitely in a hospital, but not in Konoha. The tile looks more dated and the paint is a more off shade of white. He has his own room at least from the looks of it, various tubing and wires coming from his body into an assortment of machines. That smell hasn't dulled since he opened his eyes to the somewhat dim lighting.

He scrunches his nose again, but this time notices the waxy feeling it causes on the half of his face that was buried in the landslide. His hand flies up to touch it, only for Sensei's quick hand to grab him again. Kindly blue eyes stare down at him with a knowing look.

"You'll rub the ointment off," he says. "Your injuries were pretty severe, Rin managed to stifle the internal damage and close up most of the major areas you were bleeding from." It's both a comforting and a worrying thought, because he had been buried under a pile of rocks for crying out loud! How much chakra had she used in performing that miracle?

The thought must have shown on his face because Minato fondly shakes his head and laughs. "She's fine, suffering from mild chakra exhaustion, but otherwise fine. Her work was enough to get you to somewhere across the border and heal the more complicated damage to your skin and bones...it's mostly gone well." Before he can ask Minato quickly adds to the statement. "You'll have some scarring on your arm and leg mostly, they think your torso and face should heal slightly better since they didn't have as much weight on them, and with some rehabilitation you can regain full mobility in your limbs."

He glances at the medic who is simply nodding along. For all that Kakashi says otherwise, Obito isn't stupid and he sees what's going on here. The doctors want to keep him calm, and are using an adult he trusts to break the news of his condition to him. It's a nice, but condescending gesture. Speaking of which…

"Where's Bakashi?" Obito asks. His voice comes out scratch and hoarse, and his throat burns with each word. The doctor lifts his back up and offers him a glass of water he gladly takes.

He can practically hear him bragging about how he was right, and that Obito had almost got them all killed and -

"He hasn't woken up yet," Minato says, and there's something hesitant and heavy in his eyes that send Obito into a panic. Had something happened while he was out? Minato lets out a weary sigh. "We found him carrying you back, with Rin leaning on him...the amount of chakra exhaustion was…" Kakashi's never been known for his stamina. His teammate's below average chakra reserves were the one thing he was ever able to hold over his head. Now the fact makes him feel sick at the implications it brings.

"We had to cover h-...the eye," his sensei says in a careful tone. His eye, the sharingan Obito gave him so he could save Rin. "He can't deactivate it, it was draining his remaining reserves. There was a moment when we weren't sure if either of you would make it through."

Sensei's shoulders slump and he shakes his head again. Obito doesn't take the next sip of water offered to him and uses every bit of strength he has to fully sit up instead. His muscles ache but he really doesn't care at the moment.

"He almost died?" Obito says what the other man has been avoiding. Minato's silence is damning.

Kakashi had carried him back while exhausted and likely injured from whatever fight took place after the cave in. He saved him and Rin, and done it while Obito's eye had literally been killing him. His chest clenches with guilt. He hadn't known, at the time it seemed like a good idea. He hadn't thought...and that was the issue wasn't it? He always forgets to thinks things through, rushing in without a thought for the consequence.

It's a heavy thing realizing just how lucky he's been until now. His brash nature finally caught up to him and almost got him and his entire team killed. Who knows what would have happened if it hadn't been for that man.

"What about the man who saved me?"

"..." Sensei nods over to the medic who ducks their head and rushes out of the room leaving teacher and student to speak alone. Minato looks down at him and there's something hidden in his expression that Obito can't decipher.

"Obito...what happened out there, we need you to agree not to speak about it with anyone else outside of who was already there," Minato says. "Do you understand? The man who dragged you out was brought to Konohagakure after he was stabilized enough for transport. For now he's an unknown in a hospital room there in a comatose state...we want as little information getting out as possible for now."

He wants to protest and argue, because whoever that stranger was, he saved them. None of them might even be here if he hadn't come to their rescue, but he knows when he's in over his head for once. He had thought his rescuer was from Konoha or at least an ally, the secrecy Sensei is suggesting says otherwise though.

For now he silently nods his head not looking the older man in the eyes. A tan hand reaches out to ruffle his hair before he turns around towards the door. "Get some rest, I'll bring Kakashi and Rin in once they're ready to move around."

Obito doesn't imagine rest coming easy anytime soon.

 _Everything hurts. His body crumpled and broken in so many places where crushing rock once sat on top of him. It's hardly a kindness that they let Rin heal him just barely enough to keep him alive. All he can do is lay immobile on the ground while the Iwa nin stand over them. Kakashi places himself in front of him and Rin protectively, still forced to kneel before the enemy._

 _They yank Obito upright, and he yelps in pure agony as he feels his bones grinding and his wounds stretching and the sudden movement. Tears fall as he stares ahead. They grab at Rin and Kakashi, dragging her off and reclaiming their prisoner. Her screams echo as the one holding her runs and vanishes from sight. Kakashi struggles, snarling at them as they use their feet to push him against the ground._

" _Do something!" Kakashi shouts back at him._

 _He can't...he wants to, but it hurts to much. He cries harder held up by the Iwa nin behind him. They grip him by his hair and pull his head back forcing him to watch as one of the Iwas holding Kakashi down kneels before the boy with a grin. He pulls out a kunai and stretches it towards a cloth covered throat._

" _No!" Obito finally speaks. He shakes his head and struggles against them despite the pain._

 _His own eye mismatched with a smoky grey one stare into the one remaining in his head as the kunai slides across and slices open the other boy's small throat._

He screams as loud as he can struggling against the hands holding him down. They feel much smaller than before, but Obito is too busy fighting to take notice of anything aside from blurs of color flashing before his face as he throws himself around.

"Obito!"

 _They took her…_

"Calm down!"

 _They killed him…_

He's flung back against the bed all but pinned down. Wait, bed? Yes, he's on a bed, in the hospital room with off colored walls and he feels another batch of ointment freshly applied to his face. That only leaves who is holding him down. He brings his gaze up to see the boy he was certain he had just watched die leaning over him, lean wiry arms pinning down his shoulders and knees pressing down on his legs.

There's no red like in the dream, just grey and a patch staring down at him. "It's me." Is all he says, sounding out of breath. Had he fought him that hard? He glances away in shame remembering sensei's mention of the other boy being here for exhaustion. Reality returns to him and the terrible world of the dreams becomes pushed to the back of his mind.

Kakashi's hold falls away and he sits back, quickly sliding himself off the bed. "Sorry...I shouldn't have...your injuries." he murmurs and composes himself next to the bed. It's somewhat pointless considering how terrible he looks. His hair looks like it's seen even less time with a comb than normal and heavy bags are noticeable under his eye.

"I-I'm fine," Obito gets out awkwardly.

Silence falls between them and neither is willingly to even look at the other for a long moment.

"Are you alri-" They both start at the same time and stop mid sentence. Silence falls again. Surprisingly it's not Obito who breaks it.

"They said you were awake," Kakashi says barely above a whisper as he plants himself in the seat next to Obito's bed. He's deathly still in a way that screams guarded. "I wanted to see if you were okay."

The admission floors him. Then again, sensei did say Kakashi carried him and Rin didn't he? Maybe the boy's not as stone hearted as he thought.

"Um I'm fine I think," Obito says and plops back against the bed with a sigh. "Wish I could get my hands on a mirror though. They said I'm going to have scars."

"I have one from the surgery," Kakashi says, but then flinches. "Sorry, it's not the same, I know."

"...Did you really carry me back?" Obito blurts out before he can filter himself.

The other boy nods not uttering a word.

"I'm sorry," Obito says. He's crying again, he's such a damn crybaby just like Kakashi always says. Fat tears roll down his face mixing with the ointment. It burns, but he's felt much worse recently. "I'm so sorry."

"No," says Kakashi. His voice quivers and he places a hand on Obito's shoulder. Obito stares up at him, dumbfounded by the gesture. He doesn't think he can name one instance since they've known each other where Kakashi has touched him that hasn't been forced or fighting.

"Don't be sorry."

The words and the silent approval in them cause a shift in the room. Neither says anything else, but Obito gives the other a bright smile as he settles back into his bed. They stay like that, Obito dozing off in the room and Kakashi sitting vigilantly by his friend's bed until evening starts to set in and the doctors come to collect Kakashi back to his own room.

It feels like a new beginning.


	4. Growing Pains

**AN:/** _So this is going to be the last "short" chapter for awhile. The story's about to pick up in pace and have a lot more plot happening starting next chapter. I really look forward to the feedback on this one though, it was so emotional to write. Please enjoy!_

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 **Chapter 3: Growing Pains**

Kakashi visits him again the next day, but he doesn't get to stay nearly as long before a medic comes in ushering him back to his own room. They manage to get into a short conversation about what they'll do when they get back to the village. Kakashi not so surprisingly advocates finishing the book he was in the middle of, and Obito of course sets his eyes (or rather eye now) on rushing to Ichiraku with Kushina. When the other boy leaves, he notices how sluggish his steps are and the overwhelming guilt he's felt since waking up is brought back to the front of his thoughts.

For a while he's left to sulk in his room on his own. He turns to his uninjured side and facing the single window in his room and sits in silence. The water and food one of the staff brought in earlier remains untouched along with the book sensei dropped off. A shonen comic of some sort, normally Obito's favorite. Now, he's not sure he feels in the mood for fantasy. Reality is proving to be too distracting.

"Pouty isn't a good look on you," someone says from the doorway. He perks up turning to look at Rin standing in the front of the room. She's stiff and her eyes seem to be looking everywhere except for him.

He smiles despite the awkward atmosphere and he looks over her. She's not a lively as usual, but over all doesn't look so much as bruised. She's been put in the same plain white shirt and pants as him, Kakashi, and other patients in the hospital. At least they managed to get her out safely. Whatever else came from this, that fact would be of some comfort.

"Are you alright?" He finds the courage to ask.

Her fists clench at her sides and she opens her mouth, before sighing. "I should be asking you that." She pauses and finally meets his eye. They're not as bright and cheerful as he remembers. "The rocks they, you...I didn't think I could do it. You lost so much blood and your arm and your leg were just…"

She shakes, tears spilling from her eyes and her hands swoop up to cover her face. It reminds him far too much of seeing her sob over his broken form after being pulled out from the boulders. His body suddenly feels like ice water has been thrown on him, and his chest contracts as his heart speeds up.

'It's going to be okay.'

He does everything he can to shake off the panic creeping through his body and tries to push himself to sit up. When he doesn't rise no matter how hard he pushes, he looks down and realizes his arm isn't actually moving. The bandage covered limb twitches and slowly lifts about an inch off the bed before it falls back down. The nauseous sensation in the pit of his gut is ignored and he stares at Rin.

"Rin...it's alright I'm fine," he tries to assure her, maybe himself to. "You got me back here-"

"Kakashi got you back here!" she snaps, and it's the first time he's ever heard her sound like this. Angry and desperate, with hysterical sobs in between every few words. "I did what any medic could have, and I almost couldn't even do that! If that man hadn't gotten you out, we would have had to just leave you there. You would have died and it would have been all my fault!"

She breaks down moving her soaked hands away. Her entire body is wracked with her cries. He wishes he could move, to comfort her, but he's stuck useless in a hospital bed.

"Don't say that," he tries, his own eyes burning and starting to water. "Rin, you were captured by the enemy, there was nothing you could have done."

She laughs through her sobs, but it it's anything but humorless. "No, I couldn't. But how is that new? We all know who the real weak link in the team is…" Her gaze returns to the floor and her crying calms still but the tears still flow. "I've never been talented like Kakashi or ambitious like you. All I've ever been able to do is wait for you to and heal you when you get hurt actually doing something...and then I almost got you both killed."

She takes in an unsteady breath and Obito feels his heart break.

"Kakashi was right, you should have left me."

He realizes it's a bad decision before he even does it, but that doesn't stop him. Obito flings himself with his good arm over the side of the bed, and tries to catch his balance on his good leg. He fails horribly and falls over onto the floor with a loud thud, pulling his food tray off the night stand with him. Rin runs over to him and kneels at his side looking over him frantically and pulling the noodles out of his hair.

"What is wrong with you?!" she yells at him as she examines his limbs.

"I was trying to get up and hug you?" he says sheepishly gritting his teeth through the enormous pain he's in. He isn't sure which hurt more, moving in general, or crashing on the floor.

"You...you idiot!" She says and hits his good shoulder for good measure. "Do you have any sense of self preservation?!"

It's still jarring to see sweet, gentle Rin so flustered and emotional, but he rolls with and laughs. "Nope!" Her jaw drops and he decides to explain before she hits him again. "That's the point, Rin I chose to go back after you. I knew it was risky, that it would compromise the mission...but I did it anyways because that's who I am and you couldn't have done a damn thing about that!"

Neither of them say anything for a few seconds, and her shoulders slump in defeat, an almost genuine smile lighting up her face. She carefully pulls him up into her arms and starts to lift him in a way that doesn't disturb his injuries.

"Obito…" she starts as she's holding him close to her own body.

"Please, don't blame yourself for my stupid decisions," Obito says curling his head into her shoulder. "I wouldn't have wanted that if I hadn't made it out."

She gets him back onto the bed and quietly moves to the glass cabinet against the other wall. She brings a jar and bandages with her to his bedside. There's a silent acceptance in the thoughtful way she looks at him.

"You messed your bandages up, do you want me to put new ones one? You might give the staff a heart attack if they find out about this," She says with a fake laugh opening the jar of ointment.

He nods and allows her to lift up his arm and unwind the now dirty wrappings. He holds back the whimpers that want to escape him. A warm, soothing sensation enters his arm and he immediately speaks up.

"No!" He tells her a little louder than necessary and slinks back into the mattress at the flinch she gives. "Sensei told me you healed me to exhaustion...you need to rest and regain your strength before you do anymore healing." She opens her mouth and he cuts her off before she can protest. "Please Rin, take care of yourself, for me?"

She frowns, but nods at him anyways and ceases the healing. She wraps his arms without any pain relief after soaking each strip in the ointment and washes his face off with a wet cloth before applying more to the side that had been under a rock. Her small hands slide down his cheeks once more after she's finished and it feels like there's barely any interruption. Maybe sensei was right about his face being okay.

"Obito," she says fondly. "Never change."

"Who me?" He asks putting on a smile for her. "As if, I'm already amazing."

She doesn't disagree.

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Rin is left in a state of confusion when she finally leaves Obito's room to let him rest. She still bears the heavy burden of what happened to her teammates as a result of her capture, but she feels less like sulking about it for now. She's also worried, and not just for Obito. Kakashi must really be out of it if he can't even remember to close the window behind himself after escaping.

She closes the window in his room, identical to Obito's in every way minus the patient actually resting in there, and manages to get past the staff and leave through the front door. It's a civilian hospital after all, and even if she is mildly exhausted she's still a chunnin. Rin's no Yamanaka, but she's always had a knack for mild sensory techniques, and Kakashi is in no state to mask himself.

He's less than a mile out in the woods behind the hospital and she can hear him long before she can see him. Or rather she hears the wood he's splitting apart as it cracks loudly in the small forest. A second later she walks through the thin trees and sees her teammate.

Drenched in sweat, and even paper than the last time she saw him with an almost bruise like bag under his visible eye. The medical patch is soaked through with his sweat just like his clothes, and dirt is gathered on his hands and bare feet. There's a dent in the large tree trunk ahead of him that isn't nearly as deep as it would be if he weren't in such a terrible state.

She watches him for a moment and allows him to kick the tree repeatedly. A grunt of frustration following each attempt that doesn't lead to his foot lodging halfway through it. Finally he screams and resorts to punching it crying out as he draws his hand back with knuckles full of splinters. She shakes her head and walks up to him as he bends over half sobbing.

"Can't at least one of you learn how to take care of yourself?" She sighs.

He whips around, staring at her with his visible eye wide and startled. It's amazing he's still standing if he's really that worn down. He should have at least smelled her.

She reaches out and pulls his hands into hers. Looking at the splinters in the left one she scrunches her face. "You're lucky this wasn't worse, I didn't bring my tweezers." There's a cluster of tall roots nearby and she leads him over and sits them across from each other. It's unnerving how easily he follows like a limp doll.

One by one she uses her nails to pull the splinters out. She has about five before she can't stand him not saying anything anymore. "I'm not mad at you." She says and pulls another one out. Kakashi doesn't say anything, but the way his brow creases says he doesn't fully believe her.

She rolls her eyes. "Look I understand, you were doing what was best for the mission." It had certainly hurt when she'd heard it during Kakashi's debrief to Sensei, but at the same time she had to admit it wasn't surprising. She knew what Kakashi was like.

He doesn't say anything until the last are out and she flicks the sliver of wood away to somewhere on the ground. She hears him take in a deep breath and in a barely audible whisper, "I was wrong."

Her brow arches. "About?"

"A lot of things..."

She nods and brushes her palms across her pants. She offers a hand to him and helps him up. He nearly falls over and ends up leaning on her. Stupid boys.

"You really aren't mad?" He asks and she's never heard him sound this fragile. Out of breath and voice hoarse, a slight tremble as he struggles to stay up with her help. For the first time she sees Hatake Kakashi for what he really is. Just another boy.

"I was," she admits. "But I'm over it now." Blaming Kakashi won't fix anything or make her feel any better.

They start to make their way back to the hospital. His slow, limping pace ensures it's going to be a long journey. He stumbles every few steps and Rin does her best to keep him steady.

"It isn't fair," he pants out after a few minutes of walking. She stops almost mid step and stares at their feet. Their uninjured feet that won't require rehabilitation to work again or be covered with terrible scars for the rest of their lives.

They messed up, and Obito was the one paying for it. She doesn't want to actually say it and changes the subject. "We need to get back, sensei's probably worried."

The conversation already feels enough like a confession.


	5. The Fading Calm and the Coming Storm

**AN:/** _So a lot of personal issues got in the way of this chapter, but good or not I'm proud to have finally finished it. Thank you to anyone who still supports this fic after so long. Please leave a review if you want this to continue. I appreciate all feedback._

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 **Chapter 4: The Fading Calm and the Coming Storm**

It's a funny thing, to be aware that you're dreaming. Obito realizes that the soft grass beneath his hands and gentle breeze tickling his face aren't real, but he still enjoys them as if they were. Reality is an uncertain and dangerous place right now, but here surrounded by endless fields and hills as far as the eye could see, he's safe and not nearly as alone as he would be out there. Kakashi sits above him, running his fingers through his hair as Obito curls his head against his lap. A genuine smile on his scarred face.

Kakashi hums and lets his hands fall to brush his knuckles over a crinkled cheek. "How much longer are you going to do this?" He asks continuing to stare ahead at the infinite meadows ahead. Obito doesn't answer and brings a hand up to tightly grip one of the other man's knees instead. "You can't just stay asleep forever Obito, it's been two months already. You'll have to wake up eventually."

"Why?" Obito says quiet and strained. "So I can end up in a cell in the interrogation division? I'd be happier here waiting for them to give up and just pull the damn plug. Don't you want me to be happy?"

Kakashi tenses and his hand returns to his hair to grip in a much harsher manner than before. He forces Obito to tilt his head up and look him in the eyes. One the same stormy grey as always, the other just a closed, flat eyelid with the old surgery scar faded over it. His fingers dig into his scalp and keep his hair in a death hold.

"Don't," he says, loosening his grip, "you dare…"

Obito lets out a slow exhale and nods with the leeway he's been given. He shimmies out of the grip on his hair and moves to sit up facing the other man. He rubs his sore scalp as he speaks. "I don't want to go back to living a bunch of lies and carrying the weight of the entire world on back. I just want peace, to feel something real-"

"What about any of this is real?!" Kakashi snaps motioning to the scenery. An eternal sunny day in the most peaceful place either had ever seen.

"You, and the way I feel," Obito says, not able to look him in the eyes. He's begging and he knows it.

"One truth among a thousand lies isn't reality," Kakashi stays firm. "It's a delusion, and a dangerous one at that. We both know you aren't done yet."

"Finally admitting you're real?" Obito clings to the hope of changing the subject, bringing his knees up to his chest.

Kakashi sighs and shakes his head. "Do you really think I would know if I'm real or not?"

A moment of silence passes between them, and Obito finally finds the courage to look up at him with his now matching eyes. "Maybe not, but I do. I couldn't have made you up. You'd just let me do what I want and stay here if I had." He moves forward and puts a hand on a pale cheek. The mask is gone, leaving him bare for him to stare at and touch as he pleases. It is his dream after all.

"What if I'm your conscious trying to get you to do the right thing?" Kakashi mused pulling him the rest of the way forward. They hold each other, foreheads touching with matching sad but content smiles.

"If my mind worked that way none of this would have had to happen," Obito says using the hand on his cheek to push his face so their lips are touching. "I'm a selfish man Kakashi." He pushes forward and the kiss steal both their figurative breaths for a moment.

Kakashi barely pulls away curling his fingers in that soft, dark hair. "You really can be sometimes." He presses another quick peck to Obito's mouth. "But so can I."

"I guess one of us has to stop eventually, huh?" Obito whispers while pulling away. He makes a decision in that moment and before he can take it back speaks up again. His hands fall away, biting back the tears. "Smile…"

"What?" Kakashi says confused and tilts his head.

"Please, just smile for me," He begs. "As happy and bright as you can."

Kakashi drops any further questions and does as he's asked. Curving his lips as much as he can up his face, laughter lines folding in and eyes bright as he stares at the other man.

His smile really is beautiful. He records every detail of Kakashi, from the slight crinkles at his eyes, to his flushed dimples, and holds onto the image like a lifeline and closes his eyes.

He gasps desperately for air when he opens them to complete darkness and the sounds of hospital machines beeping in time with his heart.

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"Oi! Bakashi!" Obito shouts beating his bandaged arm against the younger boy's shoulder that he's currently being carried over. "Put me down!" He lets out an ear piercing screech and pounds his foot against the boy's small chest. Kakashi to his credit doesn't even flinch and continues walking down the dirt path with the other boy over his shoulder. Despite a growing desire to drop the injured boy and let him crash into the ground.

"Tch. Flail around all you want I don't care," he says. "You shouldn't have walked off on your own."

"I was going for a walk!" Obito yells out crossing his arms and twisting his head to try and glare at his teammate. The bandages from face have long since been taken off, and the scratches and indents from the rocks that had been there two months ago are completely absent. Instead a smooth face with a medical eyepatch placed over his empty eye socket. A matching one on his own face over the sharingan he still hasn't quite learned to deactivate yet.

"And most walks you take involve spitting fire?" Kakashi says back rolling his visible eye.

"...It was at rocks, they weren't going to ignite," he mutters.

"That's not the point moron!" Kakashi growls and speeds up. The encampment and occupied hospital coming back into view. "You're supposed to be taking it easy, your physical therapy doesn't end for two more weeks. You could hurt yourself if you're not careful, and then you'll be back at square one! Is that what you want?"

Obito goes stiff and his face pales a bit, Kakashi seeing it just out of the corner of his eye. His expression softens when he sees the worry on the other boy's face. "If I let you walk the rest of the way back, promise you won't sneak out again?"

Obito nods and let's Kakashi carefully slide him down. He adjusts himself to shift some of the weight off of his scarred up foot. He doesn't have the crutches, didn't want to depend on them, and this leg still tends cramps up. He says a quiet thank you to his friend and the two walk side by side down the path. Kakashi occasionally glances over to make sure Obito isn't stumbling.

He's come a long way from the boy in bandages stuck in a hospital bed. Walking without assistance for the most part, and the scarring faded down except for the arm. His side down to his leg on the side the rock had toppled on have some light, faded marks from the weight of the boulder. His arm had been buried under more weight than anything else though, at least that's the reason the doctors gave for why the skin stayed so deeply knotted and folded up all across the limb.

"I just wanted to train some," Obito says, pouting slightly as he does. "I'm tired of being stuck in that stupid room all day, and being treated like I-" He stops and his brows crease, lips going tight in a line.

Kakashi hears the unsaid sentiment and slowly and a bit unsurely puts a hand behind his uninjured shoulder. He squeezes lightly. "I get it, but you just need to be careful. Ask me or Rin to come with you next time okay?"

"Fine, whatever," he says.

He still leans into the touch and lets a small smile fall over his face. They're right outside the camp and the guards only spare them the briefest looks while they walk inside. The injured teen and his teammates have become a familiar enough site around the place, along with their teacher coming in and out when he's called out for combat. They don't head straight for the hospital, neither ready to subject themselves to the suffocating and sterile environment they've been stuck in for most of the time the past couple of months.

Instead they make their way towards a large tent near the center of camp, with a few too many patches in it, and missing a front flap. A familiar girl with brown eyes and growing brunette hair pulled from her face by a headband is wrapping an ankle. She finishes just as the two boys walk up to the tent, and whispers something to another shinobi in the tent before she rushes out.

"Hey! You found him," she gives a small laugh. Her eyes fall on the hand still draped on Obito's shoulder, and her brow lifts when Kakashi quickly pulls it off. Obito of course doesn't notice.

"Shouldn't you be worried about your patients? The hospital rejects?" Obito scoffs.  
She not so lightly punches his unwrapped shoulder and glares. "They're non severe injuries, not rejects! We don't need to take up space and resources in the hospital for minor gashes and breaks. And don't change the subject, you're still in trouble!"

He groans and throws up his arms. "It's like being in a team full of moms I swear! I'm getting lunch from the mess area, you guys can join me when you don't feel like nagging me anymore." He stomps away the other two watching his back with looks equally fond and exasperated.

"He's doing a lot better," Rin comments pulling her headband out and letting her hair fall back into place. It's unbrushed and a bit frayed from where she's obviously been pulling at it, matching the look the dark circles under her eyes gives. She's been working between the tent and the hospital ever since she was discharged, using it as her excuse to stay stationed in camp while they recover.

"Yeah," Kakashi agrees. "Back to whining about everything."

"You wouldn't want him to be any other way though," Rin says staring down at the hair piece in her hand. There's a slight edge to her voice that she quickly does her best to shake off.

"What are you saying?" Kakashi asks.

"Nothing," she gives a soft laugh. "Let's go make sure he doesn't end up shouting at the resource managers for "underfeeding him" again, and get something to eat before I go get a nap in while we're at it."

Kakashi doesn't answer, but follows her as they start going off in the same direction as Obito. They stand close, and relaxed. Her eyes no longer seeking him out as they once had and his no longer actively avoiding her. She suddenly breaks out into a giggle about halfway through the way there.

She looks at Kakashi with a wide smile and says, "It's a good thing you wear a mask." He sees the baited statement and chooses to ignore it, she continues anyways. "You're awful at hiding things."

"Speak normally," He says after staring her down for a moment. "I don't know what you're talking about.

"I guess you wouldn't huh?" She muses. She grabs his arm and brings them to a halt. She looks over to where Obito is as predicted arguing with the older kunoichi at the rations stand, thoroughly distracted.

"I talked to sensei before he was sent out on his last assignment...he told me some well, news," she hesitates before saying news. "I'll let you decide whether it's good or not."

Kakashi isn't sure they should be having this conversation in this crowded mudpit surrounded by other ninja. Most are paying them little if no attention, and too busy keeping in motion around the busy area. Still, the way she speaks makes whatever she has to say seem far too urgent to spit out in front of everyone. Then again, this is the first time he's spoken to her in the last three days with how busy she's been.

"He's been called back by Sarutobi-sama, and you and the team were asked to come with him," she says.

His eye widens. "So we're going back to Konoha when sensei returns?"

"I guess so," Rin turns her gaze up to the sky and her face falls. She almost seems sad.

"You don't want to?" Kakashi has never claimed to be as much a genius with people as he is with ninjutsu, but he's certain he's read these tells right at least.

She stays quiet for a moment, perhaps thinking her next words over. "It's just, these past few months have been different you know? So much has changed that if feels like forever since we've been back. I mean, it'll just be two months of worrying for everyone back home. They'll be the same as when we left probably but for us-"

"We might not be coming back as the same people we left as?" Kakashi finishes. The words come out soft and a bit unsure and he takes the chance to look back up at Obito now sitting at one of the many wooden tables in the outdoor dining area. He's stuffing his face all while talking fast and loud to everyone at the table. His smile is like a ray of sunshine on an otherwise gloomy day compared to the hardened and dour looking shinobi seated around him.

"Or at least the two of us won't," Rin laughs a little bit turning her attention to the same scene. "I've been thinking a lot over the past couple of months, and I've made a decision." He tilts his head towards her, but not speaking, he's not sure what she could be talking about.

"I'm requesting to take the specialized jounin exams in medicine when we return to the village. I'm going to apply to the active field duty division if I pass."

It's almost like time stops. A million little thoughts race through Kakashi's head and he stares off with her for a good half a minute. To which she's patient, her expression not betraying any expectations from him, and her hands folded gently together in front of her while she waits. There's something twisting inside of him, making their planned meal at the mess hall seem more and more unappealing with every second.

"That's a dangerous service branch," Is what he gets out.

"Is that all?"

No. Not even close. He knows how the system works, and he's taken the time to actually think about his teammates skills over these past two months rather than letting the thoughts just float in the back of his mind. There's no doubt she'll pass. With the way she can weave her chakra with a level of control even he envies. Even if her offensive capabilities aren't anything remarkable, that can easily changed after a bit of time actively being sent out into danger zones like she's planning. Obito's recovery alone is evidence of her skill and will get her request to take the test granted along with offers from probably every medical service branch in the village. Part of him wants to commend her and tell her all of this. But…

"Obito will be ready to start training again soon, he may even be ready for active duty in squadrons," Kakashi comments. "They'll want to put him back on missions as soon as possible now that he has the sharingan." He's stiff and toneless as he says it.

"They're going to promote him Kakashi and we both know it," Rin sighs shaking her head. "Between you putting him on a pedestal in that report, and the mission succeeding? We'll all be given honors, and his will most likely be a field promotion. Special jounin at the very least."

It fits. Obito's stamina and ninjutsu skills are impressive, and make him a powerhouse in the right conditions. His taijutsu is average at best and will need some training to get back to even that after resting so long, but he's also been delving into some genjutsu training. Between his proficiency with fire techniques and now having the sharingan to help him improve, he has all the tools to make him into a capable shinobi.

"If you go into active field medicine they'll have you out of the village half of the time, and with us all being above chunin rank," the next part feels like a slap in the face to say, "Team seven will officially be disbanded."

"Kakashi," she says softly reaching for him.

He shoves her hand away and stomps off in the other direction. He hopes she and Obito enjoy their meal.

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To their credit, it's another day after he wakes up before the village decides to make his life difficult. Before that it's all nurses and doctors, and a kind medical ninja with a gentle voice and even gentler hands running various tests. They take blood samples, poke and prod at his body and see what he can move. He's quite mobile for how long he's been under they tell him. The questions are probably the most annoying part of the whole day.

 _How do you feel?_

Like he's just woken up from a perfect dream into an awful, frightening reality.

 _Do you have a name?_

Of course he has a name, he just chooses to wait until someone official comes to give it.

 _Does the light hurt?  
_  
It takes him asking what they're talking about several times before he's told they've been shining a small flashlight point blank in his eyes for almost a full minute.

He's been expecting blindness, dreading it with every ounce of his being. His expectation is met and surpassed by about a thousand. There's nothing. Just an infinite and empty void all around him no matter how much he focuses, or where he turns. He even becomes desperate enough for even just an ounce of color or light that he tries to reach for his sharingan or rinnegan. He gets no sensation what so ever. The surge of chakra he associates with both is felt nowhere and he almost has a panic attack right there on his cot.

No color, no light, no faces. Just formless noise and powerful medicinal smells everywhere and nowhere all at once. He waits for the voices to vanish and the sound of the staffs footsteps to leave the room before he throws his face into his hands.

He lets out a sob, entire body shaking and his breath getting harder to push out with every second. It's a voice he's come to rely on that pulls him out of it.

"It's okay," Kakashi's voice echoes in his mind. "I'm still here."

He tries to remember that smile. The image he chose to hold onto before facing this fucking nightmare of a life.

"I can't see," he gasps out. "My eyes won't work...what do I do?"

"You adapt, and you ground yourself."

He reaches around until he feels his hair. Oily from infrequent washes and at least two inches longer. He pulls at it shaking his head.

"I can't," something wet and warm is running down his face, and burning his eyes. They're sensitive now, and every tears feels as if it's a struggle to push out. "I can't, I can't, I can't…"

"Yes you can! No one said this would be easy, but you've made it this far. You have to keep going, remember why you're here."

He chokes on the sob in his throat and let's himself hyperventilate for a little while longer. There's a brush of some sort of breeze on his shoulder. Cold to the touch, but it somehow makes his chest feel warm.

"I'm right here."

He gives a final few hiccups before steadying himself on the cot he's seated on. His palms still won't stop shaking, but he's not ready to jump out the window if he could find it anymore. That's something at least. He needs to get himself together. It's only going to get more difficult from here and if he breaks down now, then he's a lost cause. He's made his choices, and they've lead him here.

Now he just has to deal with it. Easy or not be damned.

The staff comes back not long after his little freak out ends. A few more tests are done and whenever he's ready to break down again, a cold brush over his shoulder or across his palm is ready to bring him back up. He answers their questions without giving any personal information away. They tell him it's late when they give him the sedatives, and he chooses to believe them rather than be realistic and consider that they're messing with his sense of time as a form of creating dependence. He falls asleep within moments after and dreams of endless hills and a man with a wonderful smile.

Then the moment of truth begins approaching. He can tell from the tone of the staff something is different from the first check in of the day. They're much more quiet, and their questions focus more on if he remembers what he was doing before he went into the coma and if he think's he can talk to other people. It's the nice medic who tells him a man named Yamanaka Inoichi is going to stop by to see him in an hour.

He remembers Inoichi, both as an adult he was expected to respect in his younger days, and as an opponent in the enemy army more recently. His speciality is the human mind, both invading it and picking it apart piece by piece until he understands it better than even the victim does. Honesty is the safest policy. It's also the one most likely to end with him thrown in a cell waiting for his head to be separated from his shoulders.

"A truthful deception can be just as useful as an outright lie."

He doesn't feel comfortable with how often he finds himself thinking Kakashi is right these days.

His guest makes an appearance thirty minutes before he's meant to. Soft knocks on his door alerting Obito to the newcomer.

"Yo? Anyone in here?"

"Come in," He swallows the lump in his throat.

The footsteps are lighter than expected and there's barely any rustle of fabric. The sign of a slighter, stealthier build. He tries to bring an image of the man to mind to see if that matches what he remembers.

"So you're our mystery man, eh? Welcome to Konohagakure," His voice is casual, almost friendly and the scent of nicotine enters his nostrils.

"Smoke?"

"We're in a hospital," Obito says. "And no."

"Just thought I'd be polite," He says and the scent fades away. The silence in unbearable without anything to distract him from it. He's grateful when Inoichi speaks again. "So, about you…" more footsteps and metal scraping against tile. His voice becomes centered lower. Is he sitting down now?

"You've put us in a weird place." he states sounding almost amused. "An unknown shinobi with no identifiers wanders into the middle of a battle during a vital mission and saves one of our own. And to top it off he blinds himself and falls into a coma in the process. Weird day?"

"Random act of kindness?"

He gets a small laugh at that. "How heroic of you. Speaking of you, why don't you tell me who you are exactly? None of that evasive stuff you pulled with the staff either. I need a name, place of origin, and preferably a few details that will make this whole situation actually make sense."

He feels a pull of chakra around him. He freezes and throws his head in every direction trying to find the source.

"Just a mental sensory technique," the older, or rather younger now he guesses, man explains. "Tells me what your emotional state is throughout this and gives me a bit of insight."

"Are you reading my mind?" He remembers rumors of the Yamanaka when he was younger. How they could pull thoughts from your mind.

He outright bursts out into laughter at that. "I wish it was that easy, my job would be a lot simpler then wouldn't it? Doesn't work that way, what you're talking about takes days of study and prodding, and has a pretty huge risk of destroying what you're trying to probe. So let's not let it come to that alright?"

The subtle threat is enough to put a shiver up his spine. He can't tell him everything, that can only end badly at best. At worst it ends with whatever process Inoichi had just hinted at taking place. Lying his face off is bound to get the same results. Vague half truths sound very appealing.

"You can call me Tobi," He's gone by that name for more than a decade, it won't feel strange to be called by it again.

"That's what you're going with?" Inoichi says sounding more entertained than put off.

"It's what I've been going with since I was fourteen," Obito snaps. He quiets himself feeling nervous. "Who I was before that wasn't anything special…"

" _I disagree."_

He stops himself from smiling at that, but does feel his nerves settling a bit.

"I was born in the land of fire, my immediate family wasn't anything remarkable," in the grander scheme of things it was true, it still feels like a betrayal to say. He remembers his grandmother, and her sweet, loving nature. "An older family member raised me after my parents died, and I stayed with her until my early teens."

"You were an orphan?" His interest peaks.

"It's nothing dramatic, I was too young to remember them," He admits honestly. "I don't even know how they died."

He knows he looks like his mother, smiles like his father, and reminded his grandmother of both of them. Anything else was a mystery, and grandmother had always looked so sad whenever he tried to pry any further than a few unspecific remarks. Whatever sad story was behind those longing looks she would give him when she thought he wasn't looking had always remained too hidden for him to share that grief.

"Still not exactly an easy start, so what came next?" He asked. "You're a trained shinobi, and probably at least A rank at that. You don't get scars like that without a story after all. Plus you were well built before the coma, and we're almost certain you used some sort of space and time release to escape the cave."

Inoichi lays the cards on the table quite courteously for him. He's either giving him a guideline of where to start, or just enough rope to hang himself with. He grips the sheets tighter taking some comfort in the feeling of soft linen on his skin. He lets out an exhale to relax his body and starts to explaining an edited version of his story as best he can without coming off as suspicious or an outright liar.

He tries to imagine a silver haired man sitting beside him and gripping his hand the entire time to try and give himself the strength he needs.

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"And?" Sarutobi sits at the desk with his finger pressed together and eyeing the heir of the Yamanaka expectantly. The young man hadn't come in with his usual casual demeanor and confidence. With his gaze shifted down and hands stuffed into his pockets, the blond looked quite conflicted. It was an interesting response to their mystery patient to say the least.

At least with the office empty they were free to speak without any worries of other opinions and input coming into play. A matter this serious was best kept with as few people coloring the results as possible.

Inoichi shook his head. "Well he didn't lie, but he certainly wasn't generous with any details." He motions to the file already on the Hokage's desk. "According to him he was raised in a village in fire country, though he wouldn't give a name, he was trained in his village until the age of thirteen when he was left to die on a battlefield. Which is where he got those scars from."

"What were the specifics on the incident?" Sarutobi pries opening the file and reading Inoichi's observations along with the statement.

 _Clearly truthful, but holding back. Hesitation and fear present in emotional wave legnth. Signs of post traumatic stress disorder in chakra spikes and physical mannerisms when discussing. Heavy waves of regret when discussing early life, and grief at the mention of his village. Evades giving a name. Destroyed? Or fear of being turned into custody? Possibility of an unassociated outlier village._

"A cave in," Inoichi says. "He was pinned under stones. A nukenin found him barely alive while scavenging the battlefield and took him in."

"That offers an explanation for his assistance at least," Sarutobi comments and begins to lift up his pipe off to the side. He'll need the tobacco to get through the day he suspects. Even if Biwako scolds him for it later.

Seeing a child in the exact position you had suffered from around the same age was hardly an easy sight. Especially when they were as guaranteed for death as Obito had been. But, he also knew there was little room to give in to sentiment towards an enemy. The man obviously had some sort of kindness to him to go all the way to risk death through chakra exhaustion for an unknown boy, but more than that he very likely bore little ill will towards their village.

"Relation breeds sympathy," Inoichi mutters. "When I asked about his life after that, he was about ready to shut down almost...there's a lot of regret and guilt there. It was suffocating just to sense it, I can't imagine how it feels. I'd say full on PTSD with hints of generalized anxiety at the very least."

 _The subject confesses to have killed, and committed other crimes under the tutelage of the older nukenin. Their service to their mentor came as a result of conditioning and a traumatic incident witnessed after their rescue. Anxiety levels spiking and breathing growing shallow. Subject describes the death of a young girl from his village by foreign ninja._

"So someone died and he fell out of the system?" Sarutobi mutters. It's an old story, or rather two folded into one. A loved one dying and disillusioning someone with the system, and being abandoned in the field and losing faith in your comrades. He could count quite a few rogues from their own village with some version of one of those stories.

"I didn't think it was wise to go into explicit detail over his activities during his time outside of his village at the moment." Inoichi states and there's something firm in his voice. "His mental state is fragile at the moment, and it's not just the trauma of whatever this poor bastard has been through."

"Something else?" Sarutobi already finds this an interesting mystery.

"Traces of an unknown chakra signature," Inoichi states. "Not active or doing anything, just echoes of what looks like some sort of mental techniques. Implanting something I think, but there's no way to know for sure." He shakes his head. "For all we know he might not be giving us all the little details because he can't. I can't tell what's been done to this guys head without an in depth probe and anything beyond surface level prying is going to shatter his mind at the state he's in."

"What would you recommend we do then?" Sarutobi leans back. "You must know we can't release him and let him be on his way?"

Inoichi nodded. "Careful observation by a handler, with chakra seals in place, and civilian exploration range within the village. Have one of my clan, me if you want, speak with him at least twice weekly to try evaluate the best way to maneuver around his mental situation."

"You're essentially suggesting we let an unknown defector live freely in the village with minimal security?" Sarutobi speaks. There's no mocking or even disapproval in his voice. Just a mere statement.

Inoichi stands firm, his shoulders squared and his gaze focused. He thinks of the poor scarred man with shaking hands who he caught around a dozen times involuntarily trying to look at him. Then the spike in his chakra when he'd realize his actions and remember that he could never see the source of the voice interrogating him. To see a man so vulnerable can create an odd sense of duty in their favor he supposes.

"With all do respect, this man is blind, frightened, and traumatized by a life of who knows what at this point and only here because he saved one of our shinobi," Inoichi says in an even tone. "Yet we don't appear to be very grateful for it."

The old hokage gives a small smirk around the tip of his pipe and blows out a tiny ring across the desk. He folds his arms in front of him and keeps his expression. "Fair enough, I'll agree to your recommendation, on a single condition." One more drag to steel himself for the stubborn younger man's reaction. "I choose his handler."


	6. A New Day and Nostalgia

**AN:** Again this took longer than I would have liked mostly due to a mixture of hospital time and graduating from my certification and getting a job. Hopefully I'm back on the right track. This chapter took about two weeks once I got back around to it. I rewrote every scene at least once at some point it seems like. In other news I'm interest in taking on a beta reader to bounce ideas off of and correct my horrible prose. So let me know if interested. Please review if you enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter 5: A New Day and Nostalgia**

It's another week, and two more interviews before Inoichi can manage to get Tobi released with no restraint or other hindrance. The Yamanaka heir waits outside the hospital with a grin on his face, even if the other man won't be able to see it. It grows when the clear doors push open to reveal the newest addition to their village being guided by a young medic nin who probably isn't above chunnin level. A small and dainty thing who looks as if he can barely support the blind man he's leading. Thankfully a walking stick seems to be in the mixture as well.

Inoichi meets them halfway and holds a hand up in a short wave at the medic. "Yo! How's our friend here doing?"

The medic opens his mouth only to be cut off by his patient. "How about you ask him since he's right in front of you?" Tobi's eyes are hidden by rows of bandages down to the tip of his nose that he can smell the heavy medicinal balms from just the few feet away he's standing. He crosses his arms, the plain shirt they gave him hanging off of his thin frame. A coma isn't ideal for keeping up one's physique apparently.

"My apologies," Inoichi brushes the other's brisk tone off with a laugh. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm blind, have a face full of scars, my hair is growing too long and making the back of my neck itch, and this gel they rubbed on my bandages stinks," Tobi says removing his weight from the medic and supporting himself. "I've been worse."

"Fair enough," Inoichi shrugs. "You worked on how you'll get around."

"We've been showing him-"

"Shut up and let me answer!" Tobi snaps again as he slams the walking stick on the ground right in front of the boy. It's a pretty effective way to show the now cowering medic how he feels about his help. The boy takes a step back and removes his hands from anywhere near him.

He turns back to Inoichi. "Let's take a walk, I don't want to be here any longer than I have to. You can lead me wherever you want and I'll answer you."

He doesn't argue, places a hand on the man's back and pushes him forward to lead him. The medic wisely doesn't follow after or comment. Inoichi waits until they're decently far away before he bothers to bring up their conversation again. About halfway down the dirt path leading from the hospital to the markets he speaks up.

"So what was that poor kid trying to tell me before you bit his head off?"

Tobi scoffs. "He's been like that for days, following me around everywhere and treating me like a child."

To his credit Inoichi can see how that would be annoying, though it doesn't make the man's grumpy nature any less amusing.

"And they've been instructing me in minor sensory techniques," Tobi remarks. "Applying chakra to my ears, and my nose to increase my other senses, or sending out small waves and sensing the outlines." Which looks to be working well for him so far. Inoichi is glad he fought the old coot for loosening the chakra seals for this. Even if it means some lackey being thrown on Tobi in the near future. He expects that to go over about as well as the poor medic they left cowering behind them.

The man pauses and his head tilts to the right, if Inoichi didn't know better he'd think the man was turning towards someone. A smug smile his face and he gives a small laugh. "And I do have a few of my own tricks for these sorts of things."

Questions seem to follow the man's presence ever his he was first brought into the village. Inoichi can't honestly say he's any closer to answering any of them then he was a week ago either. He gives a short hum in response and they continue their walk.

The leaf shinobi makes sure to walk close to his charge, hand loose and ready to step in and guide the man if needed. Yet he seems to be doing surprisingly well. No true sense of direction and more following Inoichi, but even as they start to wander from the more sparse path and blend into the crowds. It's not as high traffic as midday, with still a few hours to go before then, but enough where one would expect a newly blinded man to have trouble weaving through it with barely any guidance.

Was Tobi skilled in sensory techniques before this? Clearly he had some sort of ability involving his eyes that was exhausted. Or did this innate sense have something to do with the abnormalities in his chakra?

More questions to add to the list.

Inoichi is so lost in his quiet analysis he almost misses the shift in Tobi's movement. The man's body is tilting over and his foot doesn't quite manage to hold it's ground against the fall. The Yamanaka reaches out and quickly shoves his arms behind Tobi and pulls his back to his chest. The position let's the other man have a chance to regain his own footing and help Inoichi get him standing again.

"Bastard watch where you're going!" Tobi snaps once he's standing. The man straightens his back and glares to their left, where Inoichi assumes the cause of his sudden fall is.

"My, my how clumsy of me," a voice like a whisper and nails screeching on a chalk board combined somehow speaks up. It's a voice that Inoichi recognizes, and never fails to send chills up his spine. "You have my apologies...I'm sorry but I'm unsure what to call you. I don't think I've ever seen you around here before."

Orochimaru stands close enough for either of them to reach out and touch that cold looking pale skin. Dressed ready to go in for the kill in a shinobi uniform that has seen countless battles made all the more bloodier just by this one man being there, and his golden eyes as piercing as ever. This may be the only situation Inoichi thinks Tobi is better off being blind rather than looking at this man who gives the aura of a demon off to anyone who looks for more than a passing glance.

"It's a large village," Tobi retorts after a moment. The man stands relaxed and head held up, not impressed by the intimidating figure of one of the legendary sannin in the slightest.

Inoichi isn't sure if that's bravery or ignorance.

"You have a rather distinctive presence," Orochimaru muses and eyes Tobi like a particularly fascinating pet or insect. "I think I would have recognized it if I had run into it before, or had it described to me."

Before the pounding of Inoichi's heart can grow any louder he steps up. "Yo Orochimaru-sama!" He chirps out with a smile. "Nice to see you out in the village, I heard you were assigned a long term mission outside of Kumo for the time being?"

The snake like man barely tilts his head in Inoichi's direction and raises a brow. "Long term for someone less skilled certainly. The situation was little more than a minor annoyance."

"Ah yes well we've all had those haven't we?" Inoichi laughs loud and boldy.

People start to slow as they walk around them and stare. Good. Orochimaru isn't the sort to enjoy mass attention, especially not when around someone acting in a way that annoys him. The man scrunches his nose and glares at them both. His attention turns past them in the direction of the hopisital and he starts to move forward.

"I have no time for useless small talk today," it's as much of permission to leave as they'll get and Inoichi is already guiding Tobi away in a manner he hopes appears casual.

He feels frozen when the man moves against him and turns around. "Hey creep." Inoichi is embarrassingly tempted to punch a blind man out and drag him through the streets in that moment.

Orochimaru stops, not turning around but taking note he assumes.

Tobi snorts. "Ask around about me all you want, you don't scare me."

Of course that's when Tobi becomes fine with the direction Inoichi was leading him in. "Oi are we going to get food or not? I want to go somewhere with dango."

Inoichi gapes at this candid and blunt handling of being a hair's breadth away from one of the most feared men in the village not only without even a flinch but actually talking back to him. He decides that he'll buy Tobi as many damn sticks of dumplings as the man could ask for out of sheer respect and claps him on the back.

"Sure, I know a great stance a few minutes from here that serves hanami year round," something about the way Tobi lights up makes him feel like the other man was somehow hoping he'd say that.

"Then what are you waiting for? Lead the way."

()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()

Obito makes his way down the path following the sounds of violent grunts, and heavy impacts against something breakable. He walks through the thin tree line to hide behind a wide trunk and watch. The side of his face with his good eye on it peeks out from behind the tree and catches sight of Kakashi. Repeatedly kicking and striking at a larger tree that looks to be quite old and sturdy.

The boy is sweaty and panting as he removes the wraps from around his hands. At least Obito won't have to worry about helping him with splinters. Rin had given him a set of tweezers now pointlessly sitting in his pocket just in case before sending him here. His other teammate somehow always manages to pull off a perfect mixture of exasperation and fondness. Especially when it comes to the two of them. Unfortunately thinking about her at the moment isn't helping him stay focused on his friend.

" _Obito I'm flattered, really, but I just don't…"_

He should probably step out and stop Kakashi from slowly deforesting the area with his bare hands. Obito hardly feels like robbing the other boy his time to vent out his frustrations though. He understands disappointment quite well at the moment. Rin having something to do with both of their letdowns is no fault of her own, but Obito is still grateful that she had stayed behind to let him handle the volatile boy on his own.

 _Beautiful brown eyes looking at him sad and regretful. A soft frown on her pretty face. "You're my best friend, and I do love you. Just not like that."  
_  
Not like that.

Three words to match the ones he had finally found the courage to say to her just moments before. Three words that had hurt much less than he would have thought before. Then again, being grinded down by rocks might skew your view on manageable amounts of pain.

It felt like a kunai being pulled out after being twisted in his gut over and over than. The pain was already there and you expected it to get worse, and it did for one excruciating moment before dulling down and leaving only echoes of that pain and a soft soreness to bother you. He wondered if Kakashi had a similar feeling at the moment.

He realizes he's spent more time than he thought in the background when he sees Kakashi step away from the tree. The shimmer of sweat is no longer a thin gleam and is obviously soaking down his shirt and hair. Even from this distance Obito can see how much heavier his chest pushes up and down with every breath. The younger boy sways over to a tiny creek a few meters from his wooden abuse outlet and plops down. His shoes are kicked off and pale, bruised feet are placed in the running water.

Obito sees his chance to make an entrance without Kakashi being able to easily run away. Avoidance is a tempting short term solution, but brambles and pebbles stabbing your feet while you run barefoot through the woods isn't going to be anyone's first choice. He steps out plastering a grin on his face and waving his arm dramatically.

"Oi Bakashi!" Kakashi doesn't move or acknowledge him even as Obito jogs closer. "What were you saying earlier about going off on my own into the woods?"

He stops right in front of him and bends down so his face hovers upside down over the other boy. Kakashi stares off blankly, his eyes lifting slightly to glance at Obito.

"I'm not injured," he says with no emotion. He turns his gaze away and goes back to staring off at nothing. There's no argument or anything aside from a passive dismissal.

Obito firmly decides this is unacceptable and far too close to before everything happened. He glares at Kakashi and huffs.

"You're not well either," he says.

Kakashi makes a point of not looking at him still and that just pisses him off. Does he really have to make even helping him difficult?! He unbends his back and stands behind him.

"You want to talk about what happened with you and Rin earlier?"

Silence.

"Yes, no...whatever?"

A small twitch in his brow but no words.

"Oi! Say something!"

Still nothing.

"Bastard, I'm talking to you!"

Kakashi turns his head slightly towards Obito with no expression. "Go away."

Obito is fuming, and suddenly cares very little about being delicate about Kakashi's stupid feelings. He also has more than a small inclination to pay him back one for being an unreasonable brat. If Uchiha are good at anything, it's grudges and spite.

Obito is very much an Uchiha and steps over Kakashi, turning around, and dropping down in one quick motion. His face is nose to nose with teammate and the small preteen yelps as Obito's full weight unexpectedly drops onto his thighs. A dark eye goes wide, and intelligible sounds escape a hidden mouth. Eventually he gets actual words out.

"What are you doing?! Get off me you idiot!"

"No."

"..." Kakashi stares at him utterly stunned and Obito can make out the outline of his mouth dropped open in an O.

"When you stop being a broody pain in the ass and actually talk to me I'll consider it," he says firmly.

"I can throw you off."

"Well have fun explaining to sensei and Rin what happened when I get put back in the hospital. Don't want to stress my body right now, remember?" It's a dirty move, using his physical condition to get what he wants, and Kakashi knows it from the scowl in his face.

"You don't think it's a bit weird to be literally sitting on me?" He fires back.

"What's a little friendly lap sitting to build trust between comrades?" His grin from before returns and twists into something wicked. "I feel closer to you than ever, and hey maybe we could even add a little cuddling."

The expression of pure horror that his mask is powerless to hide may as well be Kakashi's white flag of surrender. He crosses his arms between them but doesn't manage to push Obito any further away with the move. He if anything is left with his lean arms crushed between them in what is probably a very uncomfortable angle.

Obito almost laughs at the obvious posturing, but shoves it down in favor of being more serious for once. "So you ready to talk, or is this whole acting your age phase staying for now?" He may be failing just a bit in that goal so far.

Kakashi snarls at him and casts his gaze down. He's silent for a few seconds before he apparently relearns how to communicate like a normal human.

"Why did you two even bother with this?"

His voice is coming out forceful, and yet shaking. Obito's playful expression fell and he stilled on the other boy.

"Why did you push yourselves on me these past few months if it was just going to end when we went back to the village?" He grows more demanding with each word, to where his bordering on shouting by the end.

Obito slowly lifts his hands up to lay them on two bony shoulders. He grips them tight with his nails barely digging into them.

"Bakashi," he scoffs.

Kakashi yelps as his body is being embraced by Obito's arms. The older boy despite the weight lost from his hospital stay is still big enough to easily overpower the younger boy when caught off guard. He lunges forward with his arms around Kakashi until the two of them are on the ground with him holding onto his teammate in a near crushing hug. Kakashi stills beneath him. Obito almost laughs at how ridiculous they must look. Laying around in the wet grass with Kakashi's bare feet hanging over the edge of the creek.

"That's not how friends work moron," and with that he does laugh. Full force and body quivering with it.

"I don't understand," Kakashi says his voice quieter than before.

"I guess you wouldn't huh?" Obito may not be Rin, but he's certain he managed an appropriate level of fondness in the statement.

"She said that earlier."

He pushes off of the other boy and sits up next to him. Kakashi stays there laying on his back and staring up at the sky.

"Kakashi," Obito starts. "I know you haven't had a lot of time to experience the whole 'my teammates are more than just people to throw at enemies and get in my way' thing, and it's scary to think about things changing again so soon."

"I don't-"

"Let me finish brat!" Obito cuts him off and gives his a mock glare. He chuckles at the huff the other boy gives.

"What we've been through, that means something," Obito continues. "We all survived this because of each other, you have a literal part of me inside of your skull put in there by Rin!"

He shakes his head. "How much more connected do we need to be for you to realize this isn't going to end?"

Kakashi sighs. "Can you really promise that? That when Rin is busy out in the field holding people's lives in her hands and you and I are out on separate missions for weeks at a time, that those bonds won't fade?" Obito isn't sure how, but he hear the vulnerability and sadness in Kakashi's voice. "Everything ends eventually, and when life goes forward things get left behind."

People get left behind. It's a hard concept for Obito to swallow. So he does the easiest thing for him and stomps down that concept.

"You didn't leave me behind," Obito says firmly. "So I promise, I won't leave you either." He can see Kakashi's chest go immobile at the declaration. "If I have to drag you and Rin through the streets every time I'm back in the village to keep us together I will. Even after you're sick of me and I starting getting on your nerves again I won't leave you alone. I won't let you be alone anymore Kakashi!"

In that moment, something changes. Obito doesn't know what, but he can feel it at his core. Maybe it's in the way Kakashi's body falls lax, all the stiffness he's come to associate with the other boy vanishing in an instant. Or maybe it's how the very air around them seems lighter somehow. He doesn't know what to expect at that moment.

"Do you have to be so dramatic? It's annoying." Kakashi says with no real malice. "You're not going to start crying are you?"

Obito laughs and lunges back on top of the other boy who shrieks loud enough for half the forest to hear. For once everything is good.

()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()

If Obito could give one word to describe his current feeling, it would probably be along the lines of; heaven, or no...euphoria. He sighs around another piece of dough soaked in syrup like dressing and slides it off the stick whole in his mouth. The soft slightly sticky texture, the sweet and grainy flavors mixing in his mouth. When all else in the world failed him, dango never seemed to disappoint. He doubts the three sticks of mitarashi and two of hanami gifted to him on Inoichi's dime will even be enough to satisfy his insatiable craving.

" _I can't believe I'm jealous of dango. I knew I hated sweets for a reason."_

His eye twitches from under the bandage. As grateful as he is to the Kakashi, he'll be damned if a ghost in his head is going to ruin his first time having dango since he happened to run across that shop with that brat Deidara a few years back.

" _You invaded my mind and gave me a guilt complex that caused me to try and rewrite time and become blind in the process,"_ He thinks to Kakashi's spectre while chewing the piece of mitarashi in his mouth. " _Dango just lets me eat it and be happy. The dumplings win asshole."_

It's right as he's swallowing that Inoichi speaks up.

"You enjoying that Tobi-san?" Inoichi chuckles. "You haven't spoken since the plates came out, and you look about ready to go into a haze."

He lifts the stick back up and gives his first genuine smile while conscious in a while. "I haven't had proper dango in years. Considering what I've been through, I think I deserve to indulge a bit." Another bite and another wave of bliss as he fills his cheek with the dumpling.

Inoichi has certainly gained standing in the former criminal's eyes if for no other reason than for choosing his favorite dumpling store from when he was a child. It's a wave of nostalgia and enjoyment of the flavor that have his spirits lifted higher than they've been in years. The creaky wood that he thinks would probably be the same ashen color he remembers sounds as rickety as ever. The seats around the stand full enough to make one feel comfortable, but enough empty to not feel smothered as at least half the customers take their orders to go. Then the soft lull of the crowds behind them mixing with the young woman who own's the stands - Aika-chan - sweet melodic voice as she laughs and speaks excitedly with her customers.

He may not be able to see any of it, but he recognizes it all the same. He knows not to rub his hand on the counter or risk splinters, or to not lean over the counter to far and risk throwing the owner off balance as she absent mindedly moves around. It causes a strange warmth to spread in his chest. Almost enough to squash the twist in his stomach.

He wonders if there were even any planks of the stand left in his future after the final attack on Konoha. Or if Aika-chan had managed to be one of the lucky ones to escape or ended up just another corpse; perhaps buried under the remains of her little dango stand.

"It's so much easier when they don't have a face," he mutters out loud half on accident and half wanting to express his grief vocally. He's turning into a masochist apparently.

"Hm?" Inoichi makes a muffled noise followed by a few smacks. Digging into his own treats finally. Three sticks of anko if he remembers right. A wave of chakra flows out bouncing off the outlines around him.

He can feel the uneven shape of the counter and the shapes of the five people at the bar all at least three seats away from him. Aika-chan is sauntering over to the left side with a full plate of something, and Inoichi is crudely rubbing his face with his sleeve. Such a peaceful scene.

"Just something I noticed as a shinobi over the years," He's holding his dango up for another bite, but can't bring himself to take it yet. He has this sickening need to explain himself. To be able to sit here and eat his favorite food with a smile on his face like a child again without being burdened by his own guilt.

It's a selfish wish, but damn if he hasn't made enough unselfish ones lately to warrant it. "It's easier to let people die, or kill them when they're just a faceless figure. They're more like a concept at that point. The collateral for achieving your goal."

" _Obito...this isn't the time...we can talk later."_

He ignores the spirit only he can hear and keeps talking. Half to him, and half to the living and breathing man next to him who for some reason has been nothing but kind to him so far. He takes in a deep breath and catches the smell of the dumplings near his face in the process. The syrup still smells sweet, but he won't risk it tasting bitter until he finishes.

"It's so easy to forget that they're a person with a full life, hopes, dreams, and as far as they knew a future," he muses. He hears the clink as Inoichi sets his skewer down onto the plate. "Until it's thrown in you're face and you're reminded that every life you take is a human being, and that somewhere...someone is hurting because you destroyed that life, and everything it stood for."

" _That wasn't just you. Don't hate yourself for being like every other shinobi."_

He almost scoffs outloud, before thinking back, " _I was the one who claimed to be better than every other shinobi. A hypocrite as well as a murderer."_

"Is that what did it for you?" Inoichi says. Another wave tells him that he's leaning towards him with his elbows on the counter. "You realized you couldn't be that person anymore?"

"No," Obito answers honestly. He brings the dumpling up to his mouth. "I killed the man I loved." He had let Kakashi become collateral right up until he'd held the man's still beating heart in his hand and crushed it without mercy.

Thankfully the mitarashi tastes just as good as the last one before his guilt set in, and his body feels lighter as whole. There's a warm air against his side, and the next wave of chakra he sends out picks up a mass of something shaped like a spiky haired figure leaning into him. The warmth spreads over his hand that's resting on the counter and Obito relaxes into it.

"Yeah, that'll change a man," Inoichi comments before taking another bite he suspects and let's silence fall between them. He has a good idea that the other man knows when to take a victory and not push his luck.

They keep eating in a comfortable quiet occasionally interrupted by senseless small talk about how he's feeling and then Inoichi telling him things about his life and the village Obito pretends not to already know. It's a peaceful and relaxing atmosphere that Obito is quite fond of. So naturally it's fated to die and leave him miserable right as he has it in his grasp.

A loud voice booms through the closed off area of the stands as the curtains are pulled open so fast they practically produce a breeze. "Ha! Thought I recognized you. If it isn't Inomaki's brat and...welll aren't you an interesting one?"

Fuck his life and the luck that comes with it. Obito goes stiff as a statue as the second of the legendary sannin he's had the misfortune of running into today stomps over and sits on the stool between him and Inoichi. The nice personal space bubble he'd been enjoying gone and Jiraiya the toad sage replacing it.

As if the snake hadn't been bad enough, now this one! Which in hindsight is far likely worse. Orochimaru need to wear other people's faces and have an army to hide him in order to gather information and perform espionage. Jiraiya can do it while being as loud as rooster at the crack of dawn and walking around in bright red robes. Obito's guard has no intention of dropping anytime soon.

" _Please be careful."_

It's unneeded but appreciated warning.

Obito sticks out his hand. "Tobi, I'm new to the village."

"I noticed," Jiraiya says not even a moment after. "Quite the stir you've roused up Tobi-san." The way he says his name with a hint of a laugh and a snort. Fuck. He's doomed.

" _Try to leave, get Inoichi to take you somewhere else."_

"Uhm Jiraiya-sama," Inoichi comes to his rescue. "We were having a conversation. Not that you're company isn't welcome-"

"Oh trust me I don't want to be here either," Jiraiya retorts. "But the geezer says I owe him for, well, let's just call it past indiscretions. So for now we're just all going to have to play nice with each other until the crippled blind man is no longer on a watch list."

"What?" Inoichi says.

"What?" Obito repeats.

" _Oh boy."_

Jiraiya gives a hearty laugh and claps a large hand on Obito's shoulder. "Let's just say you and I are going to be spending a lot of time together for now." He stool squaks as he turns it toward the bar. "Ah, lovely Aika-chan! Some of that beautifully made hinami of yours along with your sweet smile if it's available?"

He drowns out the sound of Aika-chan and Jiraiya's laughter blending together in favor of staring blankly. Ignoring even Kakashi's pitiful reassurances. Staring at the splintered counter he does the only thing that makes sense to him anymore and slams his head onto it.


	7. Waiting and Watching

_**AN:**_ _I wanted to have this out by Friday but I ended up choosing to rewrite a couple of the scenes and add some things to make everything I wanted to get across in the chapter happen however. I am still looking for a Beta also, and this story will he updated once a week on Friday evenings and I'll be posting one shots and side stories throughout the week from now on. Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed and supported my work so far! Please review and let me know how you like this chapter._

* * *

 **Chapter 6: Watching, and Waiting**

Minato is there waiting near Rin's personal tent by the time they arrive back at camp. Obito gives an enthusiastic wave at their teacher as he and Kakashi approach. They're both muddy from their antics on the wet ground near the creek, and Obito knows the bandages on his arm have loosened. It's hardly a presentable picture when they walk up, but Minato shakes his head and smiles without any mention of it.

"Good, you two came back just in time," he says. "I was worried I'd have to go looking for you. We need to get going in the next three hours. Pack up everything essential and meet at the camp's south border."

"Hai," says Kakashi as he starts to lead Obito towards the direction of their personal tents.

"You guys go ahead," Obito stalls. "I need to talk to sensei."

Kakashi gives pause glancing at him for a moment before looking back to Rin. He nods letting going over to their female teammate slouching and his hands tucked into his pockets. "How late do you think he'll make us?"

"Oi! Bastard I can hear you!" Obito snaps with no real heat.

"Oh we're not leaving till sunset definitely," Rin says.

They both pretend not to notice him glaring and turn their backs to him walking down the path together. Once they're a good distance away Obito feels a smile creep up his face. They walk close together one occasionally leaning over to say something and looking more comfortable with each other than he can remember in the entire history of their team's existence.

"A nice improvement eh?" Minato speaks his thoughts aloud and Obito turns his head to see the cheerful expression on the blond man's face. "You and Kakashi have been the same way. The three of you actually seem like a team now."

Obito murmurs a quiet 'yeah' in response and shifts his foot in the dirt. "Sensei? I need to ask you something important." His voice is hushed and he's looking straight into his teacher's eyes. "Please tell me the truth...does anyone know about Kakashi's eye yet?"

Sensei goes silent. Obito wants to tear his own hair out. He doesn't understand the taboo around Kakashi's eye between his team. Or rather "the eye" as they've been calling it. The few mentions of it he's been around for were always rushed and the subject changed as soon as possible. The only time he's even seen it were rare occasions of Kakashi uncovering it in front of medical personnel to see how it functions. It's infuriating.

As far as Obito is concerned, that eye belongs to his teammate now. He gave it to him as a sign of their friendship when he thought it would abruptly be brought to an end. A piece of him Kakashi could carry into the future and always remember him by. If this was how they reacted when he was alive and perfectly fine with it, how would they have acted if-

He stops his mind from going on that tangent. It never leads anywhere good and Minato's persisting silence is telling. It takes him too long to give a half sighed answer of "It's complicated Obito."

Things are usually less complicated than people think they are Obito has found. He balls his fist and gives the other man what he hopes is a stern look puffing his chest out and narrowing his remaining dark eye. It's probably not too intimidating coming from a newly recovered thirteen year old boy wrapped in muddy bandages.

"Kakashi isn't allowed to be alone until I talk to my family," Obito states.

"Obito…"

"If you won't stay with him I will!" Obito raises his voice. He clenches his fists and glares down. "I'll make some dumb excuse or bother him until he just goes along with it, but the first thing I'm doing is dragging him to the Uchiha District while I talk to my clan!"

There are so many unknowns about this. The Uchiha clan name carries its weight for better or worse because of the sharingan. A non Uchiha with the sharingan was a wild card for the council, the clan, and anyone else with interest in either. Obito won't let Kakashi face any of it alone. He meant every word he'd said at the river and it was time to show it.

Minato stays silent for a moment. Gazing back at him, and Obito is proud that he doesn't flinch when a tanned hand reaches for him. He's not sure what he was expecting, but for the man to softly ruffle his hair wasn't it. He hears his teachers. Quiet laugh pierce the quiet of the moment.

"Stubborn boy," Minato simply states. His expression is fond, but his mouth i twisted into a frown. "You should go pack up. We have a long road ahead and a lot to think about on the way. All of us. We can talk more later."

Obito nods and turns his back to his teacher. He doesn't know if this just the other man brushing him off and avoiding the conversation, or him actually considering how to talk to him about this. Either way it doesn't matter. Obito has his mind made up and he's not letting Kakashi get pulled around by the village when they get back. He walks away towards the tents trying to take his mind off things.

The rest of the camp fades into a blur around him. Familiar faces walking through the mud and morning fog, and idle chatter. Their tents aren't too far from the entrance, about a five minute walk and within the same general area. He hears them before he sees them. Both are in Rin's tent to his surprise, shuffling through her things with the flap wide open. The tent looks like a storm blew in through about three other tents and deposited all the debris into Rin's. He considers that a nice way of putting the mess of clothes, old medicinal jars and tubes, and and food wrappers all over the small place.

They're mostly shoving clothes into her pack half hazardly and shoving the trash aside. Occasionally picking up a jar to see how much is left. "You don't have to help me you know?" Rin smiles to Kakashi in the midst of their conversation already going while Obito walks up.

He hums and hunches his shoulders. "This place is a mess, we'll be leaving by midnight if you don't get help with it."

Obito is stuck between laughing and announcing his presence by snapping at him. While he doubts Kakashi means it when he says those things anymore, he still feels justified in giving him trouble for it. Rin beats him to it however.

Her fist collides with his shoulder and the younger boy yelps. "Jerk! I was saving people's lives. Excuse me for being too busy for spring cleaning in the stupid marshlands tent."

They both go still, and Obito thinks it might be shock on their faces as they stare at each other. Rin looks down to where she hit Kakashi, the boy tenderly rubbing the spot. Their eyes meet up again and the medic bursts into soft chuckles. Kakashi rolls his eyes and goes back to picking the mess up.

"Pft maybe if you focused less on making excuses and more on staying organized you'd be ready to go as I am," He gets a last word in and a softer smile crosses Rin's face.

Obito admires the comfortable scene. "You done watching us?" And turns red when Rin stares right at him crossing her arms over her chest.

"Uhm…"

"Quit being weird and go pack up," Kakashi says with his back turned to him still. "Neither of you are making me late. Just because you two are slackers doesn't mean I want to be."

Obito stomps his foot and scoffs. "Bakashi! Don't tell me what to do, and be nicer to Rin! She deserves it for putting up with you so much while we were here." There's not bite in the words and Kakashi waves him off.

Obito storms towards his tent with a huge grin on his face after his back is turned.

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The water glided down his back, kneading into smooth skin he knows from memory appears discolored to any onlooker. He can't bring himself to mind however. Right now Obito, or rather Tobi as he's come to be known around the village, is focused on relaxing while he can. Grounding himself with the roar of falling water and soft caws and mewls of the wildlife in the trees nearby. This training ground had always been his favorite as a child for a reason.

He inhales the scent of fresh air and lets his body go limp where it's sitting under the waterfall on a single large stone. He can't see it, just like anything else these day, but a familiar surge of chakra and some strange instinct of just knowing alerts him to a presence next to him. He thinks rather than speaks out loud.

" _I can move without any direction now. Between sound and my chakra control."_

" _Don't rush things,"_ Kakashi warns _. "Doing well doesn't mean you're ready to try anything. You're in village custody no matter how light, one mistake and you're a prisoner. You'll be useless fully restrained."_

" _It's sweet of you to worry,"_ He actually snorts out loud with the thought. " _The longer I wait, the less control I have over how things change and the stronger Madara and Zetsu will be."_

" _Obito worry about yourself before the world,"_ Kakashi's voice is stern and Obito feels a buzz under his skin on his shoulder. The same strange phantom sensation he always gets when the ghost touches him. " _Remember doing the opposite is the cause of this mess."_

He sighs steadying himself on his palms and tensing up. The water no longer feels relaxing and beats into his stiff muscles where he still had feeling. "I hate being wrong." He accidentally outloud but corrects himself halfway through the thought. " _Even more when it means you're right. You're an insufferable egomaniac already."_

" _Maa~ you keep me around anyways though, don't you?"_

"You know talking to yourself is the first sign of madness," Jiraiya's grating, cheerful voice calls out from his place away from the water. Tobi almost forgot his presence until he had to open his mouth. "You don't look very at peace over there. How about we get going? I know this great place down-"

"Take me home," Tobi snaps out firmly. He stands and walks out from under the water walking across it with ease. "I'm done with being out for the day."

He remembers where he placed his clothes and finds them easily enough. Simple loose clothing in faded greys and black that covers him up and bandages for his unseeing eyes. That's how Inoichi described them when he took him shopping the other day at least. A far cry from the old high collared robes he adopted in the akatsuki or more eye catching outfits he wore as a child.

He looks to Jiraiya, more out of instinct than any visual purposes. "I've got a lot on my mind. I don't feel like dealing with people today. Including you."

"Well that's just putting off the inevitable. If you don't deal with me today, it'll be tomorrow," He laughs and Tobi turns and catches the hand meant to clap his back.

"I've been dealing with you for three days and haven't attempted murder," He says. "I think I deserve an afternoon of peace for that. Also...don't touch me." He adds a clear warning to the last part and picks up with long retracting walking stick he's been provided with now. He walks ahead not waiting for the other despite knowing he's not far behind.

"You're a real peach Tobi-san," Jiraiya mutters. "What exactly are you wrong about by the way?" He sounds smug and vindictive and Tobi really hates that the idiot can catch him off guard with that tone when he drops the babbling act.

"It's called thinking out loud," Tobi calls back. "I don't want to talk about this with you."

"Fine, but I'll see Inoichi's reports eventually when you tell him during your little sessions."

"Then you can wait until then! For now but out and leave me alone!" Tobi snarls and walks faster stomping his feet.

He doesn't listen to whatever he has to say next. He's tired of this. Three days and he's ready to pull his hair out. The sannin is a constant thorn in his side following him like an unwanted shadow. Everything invokes a comment of some sort or a prying question obviously meant to get a reaction. The worst part? It keeps working!

He pokes and prods at Tobi until he can't stand it and snaps and then takes note of those hot buttons and brings them up later. A small pause of victory ever time he seems to get something he wants. Practicing his chakra control leads to questions about his shinobi career, kami forbid he produce a jutsu during said practice. Then that inevitably leads to personal questions. About comrades, family, friends. Until he pulls a random piece of information he's already given to someone else and uses it to back Tobi into a corner. It's wearing him down and he wants a break!

He's already back in the populated area of the village by the time he calms his thoughts down and realizes a voice in the back of his head has been shouting out.

" _Obito!"_ Kakashi yells out probably for the dozenth time.

" _What?!"_

" _Calm. Down."_

Again stern and a bit of anger there this time. It stops him in the middle of the street. He hears Jiraiya calling his name and catching up but ignores it. He focuses on Kakashi's voice.

" _Getting worked up and letting him bother you is making you look more suspicious and putting you in more danger! You're angry and and confused and in a stressful situation and he knows it. Reel yourself in and act like a shinobi instead of a pouting child."_

Damn if he hasn't forgotten how cold the bastard could be in their youth. He has a point, but he won't admit it mentally or out loud of course. For now he sighs and let's Jiraiya catch up right behind him, digging his nails into his wrists. He opens his mind and his ears to his surroundings, noting the crowd and it's flow. Enough to realize he's blocking it and forcing people to walk around him.

"Hey."

He braces himself for whatever Jiraiya is keen on saying.

"I'm not easy to get along with I get it, and I'm here to pry whether you or me want me to or not," Jiraiya states sounding more serious than any moment he's spent with him thus far. "But we're stuck in this situation for now. If I can ignore you being a prickly bastard, maybe give a little back and make my job not a nightmare? You and I are stuck together for now regardless of what either of us wants. So let's try and play nice."

"Why don't we just not speak for the rest of the walk?" He glares and walks again, at least he refrains from speeding ahead of him this time.

It's sort of a start.

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The target is walking ahead of his follower. Beautiful in the way his flesh blends, false limbs molded onto a compatible vessel that give off a signature they are all too familiar with. This man, there's something extraordinary about him. An Uchiha, that much is clear. But where did he come from? And why and what is he hiding?

So fascinating, and oh so exciting to follow and unravel the mystery of. He'll be useful someday, they know it. For now they watch, and they wait. For the perfect chance to snatch away the fragile man speeding towards the village.

They wonder if that idiot tasked with getting to the boy is having nearly this much fun?

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They make it back to Tobi's apartment without breaking the quiet truce the other had demanded from Jiraiya. It's a small building well kept but clearly aged and weathered from years of business. Whoever was in charge of arranging the man's living situation thankfully was wise enough to get the blind man a ground floor space. Although he's adapted remarkably quick, and there's little doubt he'd have figured stairs out just as fast as everything else so far.

Jiraiya has been asked to keep an eye out on enough people that reading them is second nature at this point in his life. Yet Tobi, despite all the obvious stuff he can pick out, is a mystery to him. He's read over the man's file at least a dozen time in the past few days he's been assigned to him. He still has nothing to go on aside from what Inoichi has already given or what any shinobi worth even a single ryo would be able to pick up on.

Tobi's skilled without question. No one can rely on their other senses, and weave their chakra as well as he's been able to to make up for his sight without being the sort of shinobi lower ranks have nightmares about. He's also paranoid, rarely letting his surroundings over take him, and even when Jiraiya get's under his skin he seems to always know where he'd going and what's happening around him. Something tell's the sannin that instinct is more a justified survival instinct than an overreaction.

It's clear from an initial observation and the few hints he has given about his background Tobi was once a powerful, and most likely very dangerous shibobi who lived outside the system. The sort of person who would have an 'S' next to their name in the bingo book and being cut down by any loyalist shinobi.

So why is there no record of him in any sort of bounty system? The obvious answer is him being from a smaller village not associated with the main shinobi villages. Yet that answer doesn't sit right with Jiraiya. There's also another large question mark that honestly interests him even more. Why did this rogue ninja who so obviously went out of his way to remain a ghost his entire life throw it all away to save a single child? Was it really just pity for a boy who had been in the same situation as himself? Again, didn't quite sit right with Jiraiya.

For all the obvious and pointless things he could pick up on about Tobi, the things that mattered were still firmly locked away. He always did like a challenge.

He's been given a temporary space in the same building as the other man, but Jiraiya prefers to see him in the door. Get a glance at the small "home" and see what he can gain. Of course he just frames it as barging in.

"Still haven't livened the place up any eh?" Jiraiya sighs louder than necessary and trudges into the center of the main room. A small living area with a kitchen attached. All old and simple appliances on the counters and a single mat to sit on in as the only other furniture. Hasn't changed a bit since the day it was given to the outsider.

"You've been with me every time I leave," Tobi says flatly. "Have you seen me buy furniture? I have food, a roof, and a bed. What else do I need?"

"Fair enough," Jiraiya shrugs. "Most people like to feel a little you know, at home."

"This isn't my home."

It's said quick and firm. With just the barest touch of he thinks sadness that Jiraiya almost misses. Interesting. He walks over to one of the counters and reaches out for something, laying his palm flat against the surface before starting to pat around the area.

"Well it's where you're going to be staying for a while," Jiraiya. "Might-"

"We're leaving."

Jiraiya doesn't have time for a response before Toby is rushing out of the kitchenette in the direction of the door. Jiraiya quickly steps in his path. The hell? The sudden shift is jarring and Tobi's demeanor has taken a drastic turn.

His face is pale there's a slight tremble to his hands. The bandages cover his eyes but his brows arch in a clear glare as he grabs Jiraiya's shoulders. Even shaking his hold his impressive for a man in a coma less than two weeks ago.

"Get out of my way!" he shouts trying to push past.

Jiraiya shoves back knocking the man to the ground. "What's going on?" He raises his voice but doesn't scream it.

Tobi's head snaps up towards him. "I don't care if I'm blind crippled or what the hell ever! Get out of my way or I will make you!" He's yelling at the top of his lungs almost hysterical and Jiraiya can feel the waves of chakra he's sending out.

He get's into a defensive stance expecting an attack at any moment. When he realizes the chakra is similar to the sensory techniques the man has been using all day. Just more potent. He's trying to figure out what's happening around him.

"What are you afraid of?" He asks as he realizes it. He's not being hostile, he's terrified.

"Sh-shut up!" Tobi yells back standing up. "We just need to go! I don't want to be here!"

"Why not?!"

"Because someone's been in here!"

"What?" Jiraiya deadpans. "You think someone broke in?"

"I don't know, but someone's been in here while we were gone," His voice is still tense and he's moving towards Jiraiya again. Jiraiya stops him more gently this time by putting a hand up.

"How do you know?"

Tobi pauses and motions to the counter. "I had something sitting on the counter in the kitchen. I know it was there when I left! It's gone which means someone moved it."

The panic is rising again and whether he's right or not Jiraiya would prefer to defuse the situation before he has a blind shinobi running through the streets in a panic. He walks to the kitchen despite Tobi protesting.

The space doesn't seem to be out of the ordinary. Again a little plain, but nothing unusual. There's no window to come in through so that's not a worry. He looks around and two things catch his eye. A mostly empty trashcan aside from a few pieces of glass, and a note pinned to the side of the fridge above said trashcan. The handwriting is Inoichi's without a doubt. He picks it up and looks at the white glass in the trash before walking back to Tobi.

"That thing on the counter wasn't a teapot was it?" He asks.

"How did you-"

"Inoichi left a note," Jiraiya says bluntly. "He left you some groceries and he's sorry he knocked the teapot off the counter. Said he'll buy you a new one and bring it by tomorrow."

"..."

Tobi's face goes from ghostly to red impressivley fast and the other man stumbles over to the nearest counter. He drops his elbows onto it and buries his face into his palms letting out a deep breath. Jiraiya notices a quiver in his torso and is about to say something when he hears a loud cackle.

A strangled mix between a laugh and a cry rings out from Tobi followed by a litany of identical sounds. It's hysterical and unhinged. Tobi lets it flow from him and doesn't bother to stop Jiraiya from coming closer. He notices the damp spots in the bandages once he's standing right next to him.

"A fucking teapot," Tobi spits out mid laugh. He gasping in air as he continues. "I lost it over a missing teapot. What's wrong with me?"

"From my observations?" Jiraiya says slowly inching his hand to the other man's back. "You're traumatized and severely paranoid as a result. Typical shinobi problem really. I've had a friend or two with the same issue." More than that. Far more than that.

The laughter dies down into long deep breaths. "I have to be better than that."

"Why?"

He jumps away from Jiraiya like he's been startled and hunches in on himself a few steps away. "...None of your business," Tobi stiffens up and raises up his body. "Not yours and not your village's either."

"You're staying in my village and I'm your handler for as long as you are," Jiraiya points out.

Tobi scoffs at him. "And who made that decision? I didn't ask to be trapped in this village like a glorified prisoner so you could poke and prod to see what makes me tick."

"Forgetting you ran onto a battlefield and interfered with our shinobi and have been stuck in a coma and taken care of by our people for the past two months," Jiraiya spat back. "Perhaps if you were a bit more forth coming there wouldn't be so much suspicion around you. You can't even give a clear explanation for what you were doing there that day, you expect our village to trust you?"

"Damn your stupid village and it's paranoid leaders!" Tobi shouted. "I have more things to worry about than Konohagakure. You want to answers? Here's a few!" He marches up to Jiraiya and shouts right in his face.

"The only reason I was there was because I was fleeing from the bastard that did this to me!" He pulls up his sleeve showing the discolored limb. None of the hospital staff had an explanation to it, just that the tissue was highly regenerative. Personally Jiraiya found how vague the report on it was somewhat suspicious.

"I ran across that kid in the cave while I was running away, and you know what?" He grits through his teeth. "I was going to put him out of his misery and finish him off so he wouldn't suffer like I did when the same thing happened to me! But I didn't. All because some dead asshole deluded himself into thinking I was a good person and I felt like it's what he would have wanted me to do."

He gestures openly to the apartment, Jiraiya and himself. "And just look at all the good it's done me. I'm stuck here in this village with some annoying bastard who makes a game out of pressing me until I spill out my secrets. So there you go. Go report that your superiors and tell me when they get bored of me and are ready to toss me aside."

Jiraiya stands there without a word for a bit watching as Tobi turns his back to him and starts to make his way to the door that leads to the arely functional bedroom this place has been equipped with. He's still tense and partially hunched, and is leaning slightly to the left with every step. Almost as if he expects there to he something or someone for him to lean into. It's a bit of a pathetic sight. Jiraiya maybe understand Inoichi's pity for him a bit more.

"I think this conversation can stay between us, don't you?" Jiraiya says.

"What?" Tobi stops in the doorway. "I just gave you a listful of things to report back. Why wouldn't you?"

"I like having the bigger picture," Jiraiya states in a flippant tone. "Especially when other people don't. I get the feeling working with you instead of against you will help me get a little closer to that. Even if it means keeping certain people in the dark. Understand?"

Tobi shakes his head and goes into his room. "Even if I believed you, I don't owe you anything." He closes the door behind him and locks from the soft click Jiraiya hears.

"Of course not Tobi-san," he calls out.

He takes his cue to leave giving the sparse living space one last look. Maybe this assignment would be less of a chore than he thought.

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Finally! He thought they would never leave. The children and the blond man had spent an infuriating amount of time in the camp. Surrounded by allies and reinforcements, there was no touching them as long as they were within a few minutes walk from the camp. Now though? Now they were leaving and heading down the muddy path fpr at least the next three weeks.

Several rarely traveled roads along the way between towns surrounded by woods to hide them from protective eyes. Except for the dear teacher of course. He would be annoying. The figure watches from the treelines, focusing on the children.

He only needs one specific child among them, but he'll take two if he has to. If that's the only time the little dark haired boy will wander out of his sensei's sight is with the other boy or the girl. If they become a pain he can just kill them, and if they're good maybe they can be useful?

The figure bounces practically with glee. He knows his master will be so happy with him. He'll bring them the boy and maybe even a friend to keep! Yes, everything is falling perfectly into place.

He just has to wait for the young Uchiha to wander off from the teacher.


End file.
